Tracking Torchwood
by LarielRomeniel
Summary: PostDoomsday, postMartha AU. TenRose, JackOC. An adventure in four parts, fixing Doomsday. Summary update 122408
1. Chapter 1 Enter Kit Morgan

A/N – All right, I've gone and done it. Crossed over to the dark side with an OC fic and daring to share it!

Actually, I've been writing OCs for years now, since before anyone ever coined the term "Mary-Sue." But they were truly awful and I never dared share them. I'm hoping that Kit Morgan doesn't cross into that territory. I will tell you she has no designs on the Doctor.

I don't own Doctor Who, and the only thing I earn from these stories is the warm fuzzy feeling of reading reviews. Kit is mine, however.

* * *

**Tracking Torchwood**

**By Lariel Romeniel**

**Chapter One – Enter Kit Morgan**

February 29, 2008.

A sunny Friday morning at Cape Canaveral. The skies clear, the temperature warm, the humidity surprisingly low for Florida. An ideal day for making history. So of course the Doctor was there. February 29th might come about every four years, but there would only be one same-day launch of America's remaining space shuttles. Just one final mission for the three gallant, aging spacecraft.

Just one launch of the Guardian.

Heralded as Earth's best defense against hostile aliens, the Guardian was born in response to the Sycorax invasion. The frightened American president had bullied Harriet Jones into sharing Torchwood's weapons technologies with NASA and the U.S. Department of Defense. The Americans fused and melded the alien technologies with their own to create a super battle-satellite, so massive it had to be taken up in three parts to be assembled in space.

It was bold, brash, and doomed to failure. At least, the original Guardian project had been. But the timelines he thought he knew so well were so fractured by Torchwood that he wasn't always certain anymore. So he'd made it a point to keep an eye on anything touched by Torchwood.

Just in case.

To her credit, Martha had tried to understand his obsession. In return, he tried to show her as many alien wonders as he could. But all roads kept leading back to Earth. To Torchwood's influence.

To memories of Rose.

Eventually, Martha lost all patience with him and asked to be taken home. As she left the TARDIS for the last time, she looked at him with pity. "Doctor, this fixation with Torchwood won't bring her back to you. Would Rose want you to be like this?"

Then she was gone. Her words had stung, because she was right. Rose would have wanted him to have a fantastic life. And being Torchwood's unseen watchdog would not qualify as a fantastic life in her book.

However, he told himself, she would approve of being here on the LC-39 Observation Gantry to see this launch. It was a once-in-a-world's-lifetime event, after all.

"This is something that will happen only once in a lifetime."

The Doctor started out of his musing. His thoughts, nearly word for word, being spoken out loud…by a female voice? He looked around, and spotted a dark-haired woman a few feet away, speaking to a video camera mounted on a tripod. Incongruously, she was wearing a business blouse and jacket over a pair of somewhat scruffy jeans and trainers. No cameraman was in sight. The Doctor watched and listened as she continued.

"They stand on their launch pads for their final mission. Atlantis, Discovery, Endeavour. Symbols of American boldness and daring."

The Doctor snorted. "More like American paranoia," he muttered. He thought he'd kept his voice down, but apparently not enough. The woman looked away from the camera and straight at him. "Comments?" she challenged.

The Doctor shrugged and ambled over to her. "This," he said, waving a hand toward the shuttles for emphasis, "is just going for the easy answer and hoping it will all work out. In just two years, you've created a weapons satellite ready to take on the enemy, even though you don't know who the enemy might be. In typical American fashion," she bristled but he plowed on, "you've decided bigger is better but biggest is best. So this thing is loaded with the latest in lasers and beams and bombs, including nuclear warheads. The more the merrier, after all!" He paused to take a breath, but before he could continue, she jumped in, blue eyes flashing.

"Hey! Point one: **I **didn't do any of this. I'm just a reporter. Point two: you have a problem with us being ready to defend ourselves?" she demanded, staring up at him.

He shook his head. "No, it's not that. You..." at her look he stopped and corrected himself, "The U.S. is just walking around with the biggest, baddest stick it can and not even thinking about speaking softly. You…they'll just shoot first and never even bother to ask questions later. It's Harriet Jones with the Sycorax all over again."

"You know something about that?" she asked. When he nodded curtly, she pressed on, "You with Torchwood?"

"No!" he replied harshly. "Sore subject, Torchwood."

"Not surprising," she answered, unfazed. "You Brits suffered more than anyone with that mess." She paused, studying his face. "You lost someone in the Ghost Invasion, didn't you?"

Another mute nod. "I'm sorry," she said, reaching out to touch his arm. She paused a moment, as if trying to make up her mind about something. Then she made it up and charged forward, just a little apologetically. "Listen, I really don't mean to impose, but…you seem to know a lot about this. Can I interview you?" She flashed her press badge at him. "Kit Morgan, Florida News Network."

"Doctor John Smith, British Institute of Science and Technology," he introduced himself with his fake identity. "But, I'm sorry, I really can't…"

"Aw, come on! You came all the way from England to see this, and you're obviously not happy about it. So this means something to you. I want to talk with you about it. Tell your story. Maybe," she looked at him cannily, "tell **her** story? The woman you lost?"

"How do you know it was a woman?"

"I can tell," she said with a tilt of her head. "C'mon, Doc. It's all connected. The Ghost Invasion is what led to this, after all," she pointed back to the shuttles. "It's an angle no one's told yet."

He frowned at her. "Ms. Morgan, point one: do not call me 'Doc,'" he said sternly, ticking off his points with his fingers. "Point two: I am not an 'angle.' And point three: any…loss I suffered, I prefer to keep private. You want an interview? You should be talking to NASA."

She looked sheepish. "Can't get the clearance. FNN isn't exactly high on NASA's priority list since we're a local cable op." She motioned at the camera and tripod. "I'm a one-woman-band, so I have to think different."

"And I'm different?"

"Yup," she nodded, rocking back and forth on her heels. She watched him expectantly.

He had to admire her persistence. She kept her gaze locked on his, waiting. Something told him she would not take no for an answer, so finally, he relented. A little. "No formal interview, but I can give you some exclusive background. Just keep me off camera," he told her.

She smiled widely. "Deal! Let me get this standup done, and then I've got a treat for you in return!"

He watched her with a raised eyebrow as she returned to her camera. "You know we were recording all that time," she said conversationally. "Don't worry. It's off the record."

She checked her shot and went back in front of the camera to record her piece. After a quick playback, she was satisfied and pulled the camera off the tripod. "Let's go. Promised you a treat. I can't get clearance for an interview, but I can get us into the Launch Control Center just for a little bit. Got connections," she grinned. "C'mon. My car's down at the bottom of the gantry."

She started to pick up the tripod, but he took it from her. "Allow me." She quirked an eyebrow. "Thanks. Nice to know chivalry's not dead."

They took the lift down to the ground floor. She led him to a small, somewhat battered SUV emblazoned with the Florida News Network logo. After they stowed the camera gear in back, he tried to get into the passenger seat, just to find it covered in junk.

She reddened. "Sorry. I don't usually have passengers." She swept the stuff off the seat; empty water bottles, scraps of paper, energy bar wrappers, and... "A baseball bat?" he asked, hefting the red aluminum bat. She took it from him and tossed it into the backseat along with the rest of the junk. "I'm on a pickup team," she explained as she started the engine. "And sometimes I have to do a story in a bad neighborhood, so I like to…carry a big stick!" She grinned at him. "Buckle up, we're outta here!"

The Doctor grabbed onto the dash as the SUV lurched forward. "Sorry, she rides a little rough!" Kit shouted gleefully. She seemed to be enjoying herself, whether because of the fast ride or his discomfiture, he couldn't be sure.

It took only a few minutes for them to travel from the gantry to the Launch Control Center. Kit parked and grabbed her camera from the back. "C'mon, Doc...tor," she corrected herself, almost running to the building in her excitement. "If we hurry I can get video of the final systems check for Atlantis." The Doctor kept a step behind.

They were only a few feet from the center's entrance when the door flew open. A wild-eyed man ran through, heading straight for them. Kit shouldered her camera and began to roll as the man ran up to the Doctor and grabbed him by the arms.

"You've got to stop it," the man babbled to him. Behind him, a pair of burly MPs had burst through the doors and were running up. The man went on, "They're killers! They're going to destroy-" He was cut off as one of the MPs caught up to him and clouted him on the head with his pistol. The man dropped like a stone.

The MP looked at the Doctor and Kit. "Off with that camera," he ordered Kit. She didn't answer, merely kept the camera rolling. He raised his pistol. "I said OFF!"

She lowered the camera. The MP took it with a sneer. "All right, you two are coming with us."

* * *

**Preview Chapter Two - Lockup**

_"Best case, you get deported and I spend a little time in the local pokey. Worst case, we're headed to negative four-star accommodations at the Hotel Gitmo." He glanced back at her quizzically. "You know, Guantanamo Bay ?"_

_He turned back to the window. "Ah. That would be bad."_

_The sound of a gunshot made Kit whirl. The Doctor went back to work. "I think the worst case scenario just got worse."_


	2. Chapter 2 Lockup

A/N: Thanks to my reviewers! It's very encouraging. I was a little worried about letting Kit out into the wide world; sort of like the first day my son went to school!

This story is considerably less fluffy and emotional than my previous ones; at least for now. But there's no telling where the muse will eventually lead.

As always, I don't own anything you recognize. Wouldn't mind having my own TARDIS, though.

* * *

**Tracking Torchwood**

**by **

**Lariel Romeniel**

**Chapter Two - Lockup**

The MPs took Kit's camera and press badge, along with the Doctor's wallet. Then they locked the pair up along with the unconscious man in a second floor office.

"We're going to check your credentials. The chief of security will be in to talk with you in a few minutes. After Atlantis launches," one of the MPs told them before locking the door. Kit pounded at it behind them. "Hey! We didn't do anything! Hey!"

No answer from the other side of the door. She knocked her head against it once, then again, and looked at the Doctor. "They took my camera and I'm gonna miss the launch. My boss is gonna kill me." She sighed. "I'm sorry. You were probably better off staying on the observation gantry."

He waved it off. "What's done is done, Ms. Morgan. No use crying over spilt milk. Water under the bridge, over the dam, we'll let bygones be bygones--"

"I get your point," she interrupted. He blinked at her. "Erm, yes. Well! Right now I'm more interested in hearing about these killers this poor chap was going on about." The man had been dumped on the office sofa. The Doctor leaned over him and gingerly touched the area where he'd been hit. "Hm. No serious damage, although he'll have one hell of a headache when he wakes up in a few minutes."

He was interrupted by a long, low and very loud rumble. "That's main engine startup!" Kit exclaimed.

They ran to the window, which had a perfect view of the three launch pads. On 39A, clouds of smoke were billowing up around Atlantis. Slowly, unbelievably slowly for all the force being exerted, Atlantis rose majestically from her pad, white clouds boiling around her. Up, up and up, piercing the sky.

The Doctor became aware that Kit was holding his arm in a viselike grip as she watched the ascent. She was pressed close against the glass, holding her breath, her eyes wide as they stayed trained on the shuttle. Then there was a sudden flare, and two objects fell away from the craft. Kit closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. "Safe SRB separation," she said. "Thank goodness."

She suddenly realized that she was holding on to the Doctor's arm. She released him with a blush. "Sorry. I always get nervous during a launch. Challenger's my earliest memory, and I'm always afraid it will happen again."

"It would be better if it did happen again," came a voice behind them. They turned to see the other man sitting up on the sofa, rubbing the sore spot on his head. The Doctor strode over and squatted in front of him. "You talked about killers and destroying," he said.

The other man nodded. "Mike Jacobs," he said by way of introduction. "I'm supercargo for this mission. I'm in charge of making sure all the correct payloads are on board the shuttles. And I thought everything was loaded up correctly when we put the shuttles on the crawlers. But…yesterday in the VAB – the Vehicle Assembly Building – I found boxes and boxes of Guardian materiel. Stuff that's supposed to be on board the shuttles, but it's not."

"They're going up empty?" Kit asked, incredulous. The Doctor answered, figuring it out. "No. Someone changed the cargo."

Jacobs nodded. "I spent all night trying to figure out just what went wrong, digging into the databases. And I found the shuttles are carrying too many nukes. Way too many. More than in the Guardian's specs."

There was a click from the doorknob. The Doctor stood and Jacobs fell silent as the door opened, and a uniformed man walked through. He looked at the three of them for a moment before speaking. "I'm Lieutenant Roberts, chief of security. What an interesting assortment we have here. A fascinating little conspiracy." He fixed them with his cold green gaze, one by one. "Mr. Jacobs, our supercargo." He looked at Kit with a sneer. "Our local video gadfly." Then Roberts walked up to the Doctor, holding his wallet up. "And then you. A mystery man."

"No mystery to me," the Doctor said with an innocent grin, holding his hand out. "Doctor John Smith, British Institute of Science and Technology."

"There is no such place," Roberts said in a steely tone. He moved closer, standing almost nose to nose with the Doctor and hitting him in the chest with the wallet. The Doctor took it back and kept his gaze even. "Who are you?" Roberts demanded.

"Someone who wants to know why the shuttles are carrying so many nuclear weapons," the Doctor replied as he returned the other man's stare.

"You're more than that. You're someone who thinks we're paranoid. Who doesn't want us to be walking around with the biggest, baddest stick we can find. Yes, we looked at the video, Ms. Morgan. Very trite reporting. The off-camera stuff was much more interesting," Roberts smirked.

Kit's face reddened in anger. "Listen, buddy! Ever hear of the First and Fourth Amendments?"

He looked at her, amused. "Of course, Ms. Morgan. Just as you've heard of the 28th." He smiled as she turned white. "Why don't you explain it to your mysterious friend here? Mr. Jacobs and I need to go out for a private conversation." Roberts grabbed Jacobs by the arm and started to walk out the door. Then he stopped and looked back. "By the way, Discovery goes up in just a few moments. Enjoy the launch."

He walked out the door. They heard the snick of the lock, and the Doctor turned to Kit. "28th Amendment?"

"Anti-terrorism amendment," Kit answered, looking at him through narrowed eyes. "You lied to me."

The Doctor strode over to the window again and inspected it. Not good; it was made of shatter-proof glass designed to withstand sonic booms, so breaking it was out of the question. He started studying the frame. The window was welded shut, but he could deal with that. Lucky the guards had thought his sonic screwdriver was merely a pen.. He pulled it out and started running it over the welding. As he worked, he replied, "I admit there's no Institute, and my name isn't John Smith. But I am a doctor. The Doctor, in fact. And I'm a friend."

"Yeah, right."

"Believe me or not. That's not important right now. What does matter is that I'm your ticket out of here," he said, looking over at her. She stared at him for a moment, then nodded, her jaw set. "Good. Tell me about this anti-terrorism amendment."

Kit snorted. "You want to talk paranoia? They passed it to be able to hold terrorism suspects long-term, even permanently, without trial. The last response to 9/11, and it makes me sick."

He continued passing the screwdriver over the weld point. If he could just loosen it enough… "So what happens to people charged under this amendment?"

"Best case, you get deported and I spend a little time in the local pokey. Worst case, we're headed to negative four-star accommodations at the Hotel Gitmo." He glanced back at her quizzically. "You know, Guantanamo Bay?"

He turned back to the window. "Ah. That would be bad."

The sound of a gunshot made Kit whirl. The Doctor went back to work. "I think the worst case scenario just got worse."

* * *

**Preview Chapter Three - Breakout**

_"All right, Kit. Ready?"_

_"No, but I don't have a choice. Let's go!"_

_They got to their feet and headed toward the door, the Doctor leading. Kit plowed into him when he suddenly grabbed the handrails and stopped at the door. "My, what big teeth you have," he said. Kit poked her head under his arm to see a huge alligator standing directly in front of the door, blocking their way out. _


	3. Chapter 3 Breakout

A/N: I don't own any of it and make no money from this. But you already knew that.

No actual alligators were harmed in the writing of this story.

* * *

**Tracking Torchwood**

**By**

**Lariel Romeniel**

**Chapter Three – Breakout**

"Block the door!" the Doctor ordered as he kept working. "I'll have us out of here in a minute!"

Kit grabbed a chair and wedged it under the doorknob. "This won't hold long. You'd better move it!"

Just one more swipe of the sonic screwdriver…there! He could get the window open now.

A now familiar rumble started. Discovery's main engine had started. Convenient, that; it was distracting the MPs down on the ground. He slid the window open and was very nearly rocked back by the sound. He looked down. Ah, even more convenient; an open garbage bin right below them. He motioned to Kit to join him, and pointed down. Her eyes widened, but she nodded and scrambled up onto the ledge with him.

All eyes were on Discovery as the countdown continued. No one saw them leap from the ledge down into the trash bin. Once they landed, the Doctor made a quick sign to Kit, and they pulled the bin's lid down for cover, leaving only a tiny crack of sunlight streaming in.

Think think thinkety think think. What next? Make a dash for it or lie low? With his respiratory bypass system, he could manage staying in the dumpster for a while without passing out from the smell. But he could already sense that Kit was not faring so well. Barely managing not to throw up, in fact, judging from the hand she'd planted firmly over her mouth. And it wouldn't be long before the MPs were alerted to their escape.

So, make a dash for it. He cracked the lid open. Everyone was watching Discovery ascend. The guards were a good fifty yards away. He clambered out of the bin and helped Kit get out. They exchanged a glance and sprinted toward her news car.

The key was still in the ignition. Kit started the car and roared off as the MPs were just turning around. "Head toward the south side of the VAB!" the Doctor told her as he fastened his seatbelt. "And buckle up – you drive like a maniac!"

She grabbed her seatbelt and passed it over her body. The Doctor grabbed the buckle and clicked it into place. The car's police scanner crackled to life. "All hands! Suspected terrorists escaped from the LCC! They're headed – " The noise was suddenly cut off. The Doctor flicked off his sonic screwdriver.

"What'd you do?"

"Scrambled the radio waves in the local area," he said. "It'll last long enough to get us to the VAB."

"Then what?" she demanded, looking at him. "Hope you've got a deus ex machina up your sleeve!"

"Just trust me!" he said. He glanced forward. "Look out!"

She looked ahead and gasped. A nine foot long alligator was lying directly in front of them, sunning itself. She jerked the wheel to avoid the dozing reptile. Too hard.

A sharp turn by a speeding SUV meant only one thing. It tipped over and rolled, landing on its side. They spent a stunned moment just making sure all their limbs were there, and then scrambled out of the car. "Thanks for making me wear my seatbelt!" Kit said as she grabbed a duffel bag and the baseball bat out of the car.

"You owe me two!" the Doctor answered as they began to run across the asphalt. Scrambling the radio signal meant that no one knew exactly where they were at the moment. But that wouldn't last.

They dashed toward an empty tour bus parked outside the Low Bay of the Vehicle Assembly Building. The climbed in and collapsed in the aisle, panting. "Now what?" Kit asked once she caught her breath. "Endeavour goes up in five minutes. Do we try to stop it?"

"Even if we did stop it," the Doctor said, "Atlantis and Discovery already have nuclear weapons in orbit."

"The question remains – now what? Game over?"

He shook his head. "Didn't say that. We need to get into the VAB first. I have something that will help."

"Deus ex machina?" She looked at him with raised eyebrows and one side of her mouth quirking up.

"Something like that." He cocked his head at her. "Why'd you stop for a bag and a baseball bat?"

She shrugged. "You've got your tricks, I've got mine. We should move before they find us."

"Quite right, Ms. Morgan."

She rolled her eyes. "You've saved my life twice in five minutes, Doctor. I think you can call me Kit."

He grinned. "All right, Kit. Ready?"

"No, but I don't have a choice. Let's go!"

They got to their feet and headed toward the door, the Doctor leading. Kit plowed into him when he suddenly grabbed the handrails and stopped at the door. "My, what big teeth you have," he said. Kit poked her head under his arm to see a huge alligator standing directly in front of the door.

This one was even bigger than the first. And it was wide awake and very obviously hungry. The beast opened its jaws and hissed at them.

"Damn alligators! Give me some room, Doc!" The Doctor stepped sideways as Kit raised her baseball bat and hit the gator hard and square on the head.

The Doctor was almost as stunned as the alligator. Kit leapt over the momentarily dazed creature. "Come on, Doc!" she shouted back at him.

"Don't call me Doc!" he scolded as he followed. They started running toward the Low Bay entrance. In a moment they were through the door. "Good thing you brought that bat!" the Doctor said.

"Now I just owe you one, Doctor!" she replied with a grin. He grinned back and then looked around. "Now, where are we…let's see…ah…this way!"

"You hid something in here?" Kit asked as she followed. The Doctor nodded. "It's one of the largest buildings in the world. Lots of places to hide things."

"Like Guardian materiel. And extra nukes," she said. The Doctor replied, "Among other things. Hiding's easy. The challenge is seeking. Ah. Here we are."

He knew exactly what she was thinking. Just what every being had ever thought upon first glimpse of the TARDIS; that it was underwhelming, to put it mildly.

"This is your deus ex machina?" she asked disbelievingly. He grinned widely.

"No, it's my Doctor ex machina."

* * *

**Chapter Four Preview**

_"Most people tell me the inside is bigger than the outside," he said, still not turning her way._

_Her voice was wry. "Don't think I need to tell you what you already know. But you need to tell me something, Doctor." He turned to face her. Her eyes were wide and her hands were trembling, but she managed to keep her voice steady as she asked, "Just who the hell are you?"_

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A/N: Believe me, the Doctor hasn't forgotten Rose for one moment. As you'll see in the next chapter!

And FYI - Hitting alligators on the head with a baseball bat is not recommended if you want to live a long and happy life with all limbs intact.


	4. Chapter 4 Suspended in a Moment

A/N: Took a little longer to get this chapter done. And as I promised...the Doctor has NOT forgotten Rose. How could he? But he's just been too busy running from MPs and dodging alligators to think about her until now.

It should be noted here that this story exists in my Trakenverse. Events from my story "Hold On To Life" are referenced in this chapter. (SHAMELESS PLUG HERE: If you haven't read that one, check it out for lots of fluff and romance.)

And I also want to note that this story is the start of a long and winding road back to Rose. I know how it's all going to end but I'm still working on the middle!

Thanks to those who have reviewed so far. Cyber-fudge awaits all new reviewers!

* * *

**Tracking Torchwood**

**By**

**Lariel Romeniel**

**Chapter Four – Suspended in a Moment**

The Doctor unlocked the TARDIS door and pushed it open. He looked back at Kit. "Well, come on!" He stepped through and strode quickly to the console. He grinned a little as he heard Kit's bat clatter on the floor behind him. He didn't turn as he started flicking switches.

Kit hadn't said a word as the rotor began to move. "Most people tell me the inside is bigger than the outside," he said, still not turning her way.

Her voice was wry. "Don't think I need to tell you what you already know. But you need to tell me something, Doctor." He turned to face her. Her eyes were wide and her hands were trembling, but she managed to keep her voice steady as she asked, "Just who the hell are you?"

He kept his gaze steady on hers, willing her to believe him. "I told you aleady. A friend. Also a Time Lord, and an alien. So that's the who. What are the other usual questions you journalists ask? Oh, yes. What? What is this place?" He walked partway around the console and leaned against it. "It's the TARDIS. Time And Relative Dimensions In Space. Where…hmm..where are we going?" He checked the monitor and looked back up at her. "Well, the plan is to get into the payload bay of one of the shuttles. And why? To find out what's gone wrong and stop it of course. Have I covered everything?"

"You forgot 'when' and 'how,'" she answered with a tilt of her head. Her trembling was diminishing, and a ghost of a smile was playing around her lips.

"Ah, that!" He looked back down at his monitor, studying the readout. "As to when - right now I'm keeping us suspended in the moment just after the TARDIS dematerialized. A chance to catch our breath and figure out the rest of the plan. Which will be the how."

Kit had managed to still her hands. She shook her head slowly, as if she were trying to process all the information. "You…you said suspended in a moment? This..this is a time machine?"

"Time and space machine!" he corrected in a chipper voice as he pushed a few more buttons.

"Can you take us back to stop the launches?"

He shook his head. "Sorry, no. We're already part of events, so we'll have to see this through if we're going to stop it. When we re-materialize, it will be right after we left." He looked up and locked eyes with her. "Unless…we could just walk away, now that we're out of danger. Let things unfold as they will."

Kit's response was firm and immediate. "No. Freaking. Way. There's something wrong, and it's a huge story even without this…" she paused, looking for words, then threw up her hands, "this close encounter of the third kind! And I'm getting the story!"

He beamed. "Kit Morgan, that was the right answer! Now, I've got coordinates set to land in the Atlantis payload bay once we're ready."

She walked over to look at the monitor with him. "Then what? No oxygen and no gravity in there."

He looked thoughtful. "Zero gravity is easy. Oxygen…hmm…be back in two shakes!"

He dashed out of the console room, down the hallway to the wardrobe. He pawed his way through the racks until he found it: the orange space suit from Krop Tor. Its oxygen tank was on the floor, fully charged. Next to the tank was the helmet, its faceplate repaired long ago, just in case. He pulled the suit off the rack, and then stopped cold as memories slammed through him. _Rose..._

The last time he'd worn this suit, he'd held Rose in his arms. She'd flung herself at him in sheer joy that they were both alive and together again.

He should have kissed her then. Should have told her he loved her. Should have never let her go. A wasted opportunity; one of many wasted opportunities. Since Bad Wolf Bay, he'd spent many hours mentally flogging himself over each one.

He could still smell her perfume on the suit. How could that be after so long?

So many memories connected to scent. That night on Traken….she'd anointed herself with this same perfume. He could remember breathing it in while nibbling on her neck, while licking her navel, while kissing his way up her silken thigh…

_Damn damn damn damn damn_. He viciously brushed away the tears that had begun welling up. He didn't have time for this! Even if he was suspended in a moment, he couldn't let himself get lost in memories of making love to Rose. Not now.

Ruthlessly, he squashed the memories back into the golden mental box he'd labeled "Rose." He had business to take care of. Villainy to stop. A world to save. Again. And if he didn't get back soon it was very likely Kit would go looking for him and get herself lost.

Memories and tears would have to wait until later.

He pulled on the suit, strapped the oxygen pack on and picked up the helmet. For an instant he thought he could see a slight lipstick smear where Rose had kissed the faceplate. Impossible, of course; it was a replacement. Another memory shoved into the golden box.

He stalked back out to the console room, where Kit was kneeling on the floor, her bag open in front of her and a small device in her hand. She held it up for him to see. It was a miniature video recorder.

"They took my camcorder, but I still have my D-Snap," she said. "Not the best video, but better than nothing."

"Kit, I've only the one space suit," he said. "You can't come with me."

She nodded. "I guessed that already. I can't do zero-G anyway; I'll puke. So you're taking it out there."

He frowned. "I expect I'm going to be a little too busy to be making movies."

"Guessed that too," she said, taking a silver roll out of her bag. "Give me the helmet."

He handed it to her, eyebrows raised in curiosity. After a moment, she had the recorder duct-taped to the side of the helmet. She stood up and handed it back to him. "There!" she said proudly. "Doctor-cam!"

"Very clever," he smirked. "Now, the TARDIS can give you audio and visual while I'm out there, and you'll be able to talk to me."

She brightened. "Can it record too?"

"She can do anything you want," he nodded. "Now here's the plan. We'll re-materialize in the Atlantis payload bay. You stay put," he said, emphasizing each word with a finger shake, "and I'll go out to see what's out there."

"Then what?"

"Don't know till we get there," he replied, "but I'll think of something. I always do!" He reached out toward the console. His hand hovered over a button. "Ready?" he asked. She swallowed nervously and nodded. He pushed the button. The rotor stopped and they heard the thump of landing. "Welcome to space, Kit Morgan," the Doctor said.

He flicked a switch and the monitor lit up with the image of the shuttle cargo bay. It was surprisingly dim. "Conserving power," Kit said. "They won't light it up till they get to the International Space Station."

"Then our timing is perfect," the Doctor said. "Stay here. The TARDIS will create a force-field airlock just inside the door." He stroked the console and murmured, "Watch out for her, won't you, old girl?"

Then he was bounding toward the door, ignoring Kit's quizzical look as he put the helmet on and snapped the fastenings into place. A small flicker of the lighting let him know the force field was in place. He pulled the door open and floated out, pushing off the TARDIS toward the closest crate. "Can you hear me, Kit?"

"Loud and clear, Doctor. The images are a bit dark; tell me what you're seeing."

He reached the crate and grabbed onto the webbing that held it to the deck. "Boxes. Lots and lots of boxes. I'm going up for a better look."

He pushed off toward the payload bay doors above him. As he floated up, he looked down at the orderly rows of neatly webbed crates, shining the light from his helmet onto them. "Big boxes, small boxes, red boxes, blue boxes."

"Doctor, the rest of your name wouldn't be Seuss, would it?" Kit asked dryly.

"Just Doctor, Kit," he answered with a smile. He had reached the top of the payload bay and now was pulling himself along its length. "Some of the Guardian framing is here also, and….hello!" He stopped moving. "I found them, Kit."

"The nukes?"

"Yes," he replied as he pushed himself downwards. Ten missiles, sleek and deadly. He moved to the control panel of the closest one. "Let's see what's programmed into the guidance system." He pushed some buttons. "Kit, the TARDIS will give you the names for these coordinates. 34 point 28 north, 69 point eleven east."

There was no answer. "Kit? You still with me?"

Finally, she answered in a small, shocked voice. "Yes. Doctor, that first set is for Kabul, Afghanistan."

"Hmmm. I thought it would be something like that," he said. "Your president seems to like sledgehammer solutions to his problems. I'm willing to bet that the other missiles are set for places like Baghdad, Mecca and other hotbeds of Islamic radicalism."

"You'd win that bet. But you won't be collecting."

That voice was far too low and far too masculine to be Kit's. The Doctor looked around as the payload bay lights came on. "We've got company," he said.

* * *

**Preview Chapter Five**

_"I know the pain! They took everything from me that day! Everything I loved! You think I don't want justice? You think I don't want revenge? But this…this isn't justice. It's obscenity!"_

* * *

A/N: OK, I know I've taken artistic license here. For the story's sake, he brought back the helmet from Krop Tor. :-) 


	5. Chapter 5 Stopping the Solution

A/N: Thanks to KatesMaster, LilacFree, Kesomon, PsiGen and JillieRose for the reviews.

Standard Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who. If I did, would I be writing fan fiction for no money?

* * *

**Tracking Torchwood**

**by **

**Lariel Romeniel**

**Chapter Five - Stopping the Solution**

The Doctor scrambled for cover under the missile framework. He pulled himself hand over hand toward the center.

"Now, really, Doctor," came the voice of the unseen speaker. It was rich and oily, like melted butter. It made the Doctor's skin crawl. "You don't really think you can hide from me for long, do you? We've got cameras on every part of this payload bay. You're not that good, no matter what our friends at Torchwood think. Yes, we've talked with them and we know about you, Time Lord."

The Doctor's voice hardened. "If you know about me, then you know you'll need an army to keep me from stopping you."

"Oh, an army's not necessary," gloated the voice. "I can do it myself, and let the crew keep flying the ship. There's nowhere you can run to. We're in space, and I'm going to keep you away from your TARDIS. Yes, I know about that too. Atlantis is a small ship, Doctor, and I will find you. You're only putting off the inevitable."

"Well, never do today what you can put off till tomorrow, I always say," the Doctor replied. "Procrastination is a fine art. You Americans seem to have forgotten it. Rush, rush, rush, rush, rush everywhere you go. Except in traffic during the rush hour, which makes absolutely no sense. But anyway! Instead of taking time to smell the ros— the flowers, you just read the Cliff's Notes and then you're off to something else! Impatient, the lot of you! Fast cars, fast food, fast fixes. Instant pudding, instant soup, instant coffee…the pudding's not so bad, but how do you stomach the soup or the coffee? Never mind that. The point is, you're always going for what looks like the quick and easy solution. Like these bombs."

"It's taken us decades to reach this solution for mideast terrorism, Doctor. I wouldn't call that rushing."

Kit's voice crackled through the intercom. "I wouldn't call it a solution, either! More like wholesale slaughter!"

"Ah, the lovely reporter checks in!" The man's tone was almost jovial, making him sound all the more sinister. "Lieutenant Roberts was disappointed when you ran off, Ms. Morgan. He'd been looking forward to discussing civil rights with you. But about the solution…." The voice turned cold. "They didn't hesitate to slaughter our people, did they? Or have you forgotten 9/11?"

The Doctor could almost feel Kit's white hot fury burning through the intercom as she hissed, "I'm a 9/11 orphan, mister! I remember it every single day of my life! I know the pain! They took everything from me that day! Everything I loved! You think I don't want justice? You think I don't want revenge? But this…this isn't justice. It's obscenity!"

"Ms. Morgan," the voice went on smoothly, "you know one person's obscenity is another's work of art."

"There's nothing artistic about the deaths of innocent people," the Doctor interjected. He drew his sonic screwdriver from the pocket in his sleeve. Just a few adjustments…. He began to pull himself back toward the outer edge of the framework.

"Well, artistic taste is so subjective," the voice answered. "Perhaps we should speak in terms of practicality. Consider this…pest control. When you have a rat problem, you wipe out the nest. In less than 30 minutes, all the nests will be gone."

The Doctor's eyes widened. "You're firing from the payload bays."

"Correct. Launch in just five minutes. All your lecturing has just insured that you won't have enough time to stop all the missiles, Doctor."

He'd reached the edge of the framework. "Well, you've given me a challenge." Suddenly he felt himself being hauled upward and held firmly from behind.

"More of a challenge than you think," purred the voice. "It would only take me a second to cut your oxygen line. Death by asphyxiation is so very unpleasant. Now, whatever were you planning to do with that?"

The Doctor considered his sonic screwdriver. "What, this? Well…I thought I'd use it to generate some neutrons. Nice neutrons. I really like neutrons. They're so useful. Bomb the bombs with neutrons, alter what's fissile and make the missiles completely useless."

The voice sounded disappointed. "Such a shame to waste such incredible intelligence. I regret having to do this."

"Not as much as you're gonna regret me doing this!" A jerk and suddenly the Doctor was free. He turned to see his captor facing Kit, somehow outfitted in a space suit – and carrying her baseball bat.

A lightning-fast swipe of red aluminum. A sharp crack, and then shards of sparkling glass were floating across the cargo bay. The Doctor had never seen the face of his nemesis, and now he was quite sure he didn't want to. Asphyxiation might be unpleasant, but sudden depressurization was downright ugly. So instead, he looked at Kit, who was wide-eyed and just a bit green. "How?"

"The TARDIS," she answered shakily. "You told me she'd do whatever I wanted. I wanted to help you, and suddenly there was a space suit on the chair. And I think she managed to block the payload bay off with a force field. There are a couple of astronauts trying to get through an invisible wall by the flight deck door."

"Centuries together and she still manages to surprise me," he murmured, activating the sonic screwdriver and holding it up. "All right. A minute of neutron bombardment will do it."

"Doctor, I'm lousy at math but I'm pretty sure that means we don't have enough time to get to the other shuttles."

"No, we don't. So we'll have to stop them another way. By the way, Kit, I told you to stay put," he said sternly.

She glared at him. "If I'd stayed put, you'd be the one breathing vacuum now," she retorted.

"Technically, one cannot breathe vacuum."

"Just an expression, Doctor!"

"I know that," he said, turning to wave the screwdriver over the missiles a bit more. _Good little neutrons_. "But you're a journalist. You really should be more careful with your words. Especially since you're going live in 90 seconds."

He turned to see her gaping at him. "Well, come on. Have to get you back to the TARDIS gravity field before you get space sick."

They pushed off back toward the TARDIS. As they approached her, they could see two of the shuttle crew pressing against the force field. "Hello and goodbye!" the Doctor said, waving to them. "Love to stay and chat but we've got a world to save." He pushed Kit through the door and closed it.

He strode over to the console as he pulled his helmet off and tore the D-snap off its side. He considered the recorder for a moment and then plopped it into a socket. "The TARDIS can manage the video upload from your recorder and her own. But you need to tell the story."

Kit had removed her helmet, and her color was returning to normal. "How is that going to stop the bombs?"

"You know the pen is mightier than the sword? And a picture is worth a thousand words?" the Doctor asked as he circled the console, pressing buttons and flicking switches. "I myself ruined Harriet Jones with just six words. Just six! Think what you can do in, say, 45 seconds!" He stopped in front of her. "The TARDIS will broadcast this to all networks worldwide. It's up to you now. Ready to go global?"

Kit looked down at the floor and gulped, then looked up and nodded, determination replacing doubt in her blue eyes. He stepped back to the console and hit one more switch. "Right, then. You're on."

She took a breath and began. "This is Kit Morgan of the Florida News Network, with breaking news from the payload bay of the space shuttle Atlantis. Everything you've heard until now about the Guardian Project has been a lie. The giant battle-satellite launched today from the Kennedy Space Center is not intended to protect planet Earth from alien attack. Instead, the shuttles are carrying American nuclear warheads aimed for the Middle East and other primarily Muslim population centers."

"_When you have a rat problem, you wipe out the nest. In less than 30 minutes, all the nests will be gone." _Even in playback, that silky voice sent chills down the Doctor's spine. "_Launch in just five minutes."_

Kit continued. "The bombs on Atlantis are deactivated. But there are still bombs on Discovery and Endeavour, and just two minutes left to stop them. I urge the nations of the world to stop this. I call on Great Britain to use Torchwood if necessary to make the U.S. stand down. Reporting from the shuttle Atlantis, this is Kit Morgan…citizen of Earth."

The Doctor cut off the relay. "Well done," he said softly as she sank to the grate. He pushed a few more buttons and sent the TARDIS back into the vortex. Then he walked over to Kit and sat cross-legged on the grate in front of her.

Her head was bowed, curling strands of dark hair hanging down so he couldn't see her face. "What happens next?" she asked in a small voice.

He kept his voice soft. "The radical Muslims call it the Great Jihad, against all non-believers. The Americans call it the Second Civil War, red states versus blue states. Everyone else knows it as World War Three, because everyone got involved. It's what was meant to happen, Kit. You helped preserve the timeline."

She hugged her knees and rested her forehead against them, muffling her next words. "And I destroyed my country."

"Oh, no, Kit." She peeked up to see him smiling gently. "This helps restore it. No one's ever been able to keep you Yanks down. When the war ends, humanity starts heading out to space with American explorers at the front of the line. It's the New Manifest Destiny! Old Glory will have two hundred stars. And each one represents a whole system in the New American Federation."

She pushed the hair back from her face and cocked her head. "Two hundred stars. That's hard to imagine. Still thirteen stripes, though?"

"Forever," he assured her.

"I'd like to see that," she mused, her eyes focusing on a far-off vision. Then she snapped back to reality. "How long?"

"How long what?"

"How long does the war last?"

He hesitated for a moment. Would the answer break her? "A hundred years, more or less."

Her face fell. "I won't live to see any of it, then. No New Manifest Destiny, no flag with two hundred stars. Just war for the rest of my life." She rested her hands on her knees and put her chin on her hands, her eyes cast downwards. He watched her for a moment, then asked.

"Do you really want to see it?"

She flicked her eyes back up at him. "Yeah. I really do."

"Then we can go," he offered. "A few hundred years into your future. You can see the new Old Glory, pay a visit to New D.C., and even hear the new national anthem. They changed it to 'America the Beautiful.' No one could sing the other one."

Kit straightened up a bit, tilted her head back and studied the ceiling far above. "OK, let's go," she said after a moment's consideration. He moved to rise, then stopped as she spoke again. "But…what happens next?" She looked back at him and waited. He didn't answer. "Doctor, I don't know what to do. Since I met you, I've lost my camera and my news car; probably lost my job; brained an alligator – " he chuckled with her, but then she turned serious, "and I killed a man to save your life. We're even, now, by the way."

"You never really owed me anything, Kit-kat." He cocked his head for a moment. "I like the sound of that. Kit-kat Kit-kat Kit-kat."

"Call me that and I'll call you 'Doc,'" she growled. Then she was serious. "You're trying to distract me. I appreciate the effort, but it doesn't change the fact that I committed murder and I betrayed my country." She held up a hand to stop his protests. "Oh, I know. I did it with the best of intentions and for all the right reasons, and I'd do it all again. But where will that leave me after New D.C.?"

He studied her for a long moment. In the back of his mind, he could sense the TARDIS nudging him. _All right, if you're certain, old girl…_ "Well," he said slowly, "I do happen to have room aboard the TARDIS for a journalist who's good with words, pictures and a baseball bat."

She gazed back at him, and then gave him a lopsided smile. "You sure you can handle an impatient American?"

He grinned back. "It won't be the first time. But maybe I can teach you to smell the flowers and not just read the Cliff's Notes." He rose and offered her a hand up. Her smile widened as she took it to stand.

"And maybe I can teach you not to mix your metaphors," she said.

The Doctor laughed. "If you can succeed where Shakespeare failed, then you're a miracle worker!" he said. He went back to the console. "Right, then! How about the Fourth of July 2776? America's one-thousandth birthday? Incredible fireworks!"

Kit moved next to him with shining eyes. "Sounds fantastic!"

He pushed one more lever, and the course was set. _She's not Rose, old girl. No one could ever be Rose._

_But she'll do._

**End Arc One**

* * *

A/N: This story moved a little differently than I first envisioned, so the title doesn't exactly fit at the moment.But Torchwood is not yet off the hook. Still ahead for the Doctor, Kit, and you, dear reader: voodoo, video, the Void, the Face of Boe, more trouble with Torchwood, Daleks, Captain Jack and, oh yes...the eventual return of Rose Tyler.

Reviews are greatly appreciated!


	6. Chapter 6 New DC

A/N: I don't think I should have promised voodoo at the end of the last arc. Got myself thoroughly stuck for a few days. But now I think I'm unstuck, so on to the second arc!

Not so sure about the voodoo anymore, though. I'll get back to you on that.

In the meantime – Kit and New D.C. are mine. The rest belongs to the BBC. Except for the lyrics to "Before the Parade Passes By." That's by Jerry Herman, from the soundtrack to "Hello, Dolly!"

(You've been warned. The Doctor sings again! And some other silliness ensues.)

* * *

**Tracking Torchwood**

**By **

**Lariel Romeniel**

**Chapter 6 – New D.C.**

As promised, the fireworks were incredible.

They arrived on New D.C. on the morning of July 4, 2776. "Just in time for the big parade down the Mall," the Doctor announced. "Come on."

The TARDIS was parked just on the edge of a wide greenbelt. "This looks just like the Mall in my Washington, D.C.," Kit exclaimed. "It's just – bigger!"

"Bigger is better and biggest is best, right? The American way?" he grinned. "This is the seat of government for the whole American Federation. Two hundred systems, so it had to be huge."

"Literally big government! The Republicans must hate it!"

"No more Republicans or Democrats," he corrected. "At least not in your sense of the terms. The old two-party system is dead and gone, abandoned after World War Three. Americans can vote for the candidate they believe in the most."

Kit looked at him a bit goggle-eyed. "And I helped make that happen?"

"Yes, you did!" the Doctor beamed.

"Tell me, am I in the history books?" she asked. He furrowed his brow, trying to remember, then shrugged. "We'll look it up when we get back to the TARDIS. Hurry up, we want to find a good spot before the parade passes by!" Kit's mouth dropped open as he began singing. "When the parade passes by…listen and hear that brass harmony growing…" He strode quickly across the grass still singing. Kit stared after him, chuckling and shaking her head before she ran to catch up.

They found a good spot along the curb to watch the parade, cheering the bands, waving to the marchers and getting inundated with red, white and blue confetti. After the last float passed by, they played tourist, exploring the Mall and the surrounding area.

Kit was stunned into speechlessness by the New Washington Monument, a gigantic obelisk that dwarfed the original, encircled by two hundred flags, each one spangled with two hundred stars.

She listened, enthralled, at the New Lincoln Memorial, as the Doctor told her his own first-hand account of what it was really like that day in Gettysburg and that night at the Ford Theatre.

She wept at the 9/11 Memorial, finding the name "Morgan" among the thousands engraved on the tall polished obsidian wall. Respecting her private catharsis, he waited a short distance away until she returned, purged for the moment of her sorrow, smiling again through traces of tears.

They bought hot dogs from a roadside vendor, and the Doctor discovered the sticky wonder of cotton candy.

They found a friendly pick-up baseball game, and Kit proved that she could indeed put a bat to its intended purpose. Quite well, in fact.

And the Doctor learned that while most people could sing the new American national anthem, Kit was regrettably not among that number.

As the sun went down, they made themselves comfortable on the grass near the obelisk, eating ice cream cones. Chocolate fudge for her, mint chocolate chip for him. He closed his eyes to savor the ice cream: the cold velvety texture, the dark sweetness of the chocolate and the way it contrasted with the mintiness of the ice cream…wait, was mintiness even a proper word? He decided it was now as he moved on to the sugary crunch of the cone.

He slowly became aware of muffled giggling. He opened his eyes and looked at Kit, who was barely containing herself. "What?"

"Doctor, where I come from, the way you were eating that ice cream cone would be considered indecent by half the population!" she laughed.

"Indecent? That's an awfully presumptuous thing to say on just 24 hours acquaintance!" He considered the remainder of the cone for a moment and popped it into his mouth, giving her a cheeky wink.

"With what we went through in just 24 hours, I think I can be a little presumptuous!" Kit retorted, grinning. She finished her own ice cream and lay back on the grass, looking at the darkening sky. After a few minutes, she spoke again, her tone serious. "I'm going to presume a bit more. The woman you lost in the Ghost Invasion. Who was she, Doctor?"

He didn't answer. He would tell her about Rose, but not today. This was a day for fun. As the silence lengthened, she rolled onto her side to look at him, her head propped up on her hand. "You loved her, didn't you?"

He sighed heavily. "With all my hearts."

Even through the deepening gloom, he could see her blink in surprise. "Hearts?"

"Alien, remember? Two hearts," he answered.

"You're not so alien that those hearts can't be broken," Kit observed. She reached a hand out to touch his sleeve. "I know, I'm prying. I have a habit of asking inconvenient questions."

"Those are usually the best kind," he told her. "But…"

"But not tonight," she finished for him, understanding. "That's okay. If you ever want to talk, I'm a very good listener."

She began to withdraw her hand, but not before he put his own over it for a quick, friendly squeeze. "Thank you, Kit."

He lay back on the grass, putting his hands behind his head and looking up. Together they watched the most incredible fireworks display Kit had ever seen, while the Doctor tried to forget the last time he'd watched a fireworks show.

With Rose.

"_Something in the air, something coming."_

"_What?"_

"_A storm's approaching."_

A whoop from Kit brought him back to the present. The fireworks had reached a climax, with the New Washington Monument standing out in relief against the blazing sky.

They got up as the last explosions faded to darkness, joining the throng streaming out of the Mall. The Doctor dug in his pockets for his key as they approached the TARDIS.

"Doesn't anyone ever notice this big blue box?" Kit asked. He shook his head as he opened the door. "No. They don't."

As they went in, neither of them noticed the man lying on the park bench across the road. If they had, they might have dismissed him as someone who'd been celebrating a bit too much, sprawled across the bench, one arm trailing on the ground and the other thrown over his eyes. But a moment after the TARDIS door closed, he was up on his feet, far too lucid for someone who'd been on a bender.

He pressed a finger behind his left ear. "Field Unit 29 to Control. Target acquired." He smiled slightly. "We were right."


	7. Chapter 7 History

A/N: Recognize it from the show? Then it doesn't belong to me. Simple, isn't it?

* * *

**Tracking Torchwood**

**by Lariel Romeniel**

**ChapterSeven - History**

"Do you have anything stronger than tea around here?" Kit asked the next morning, rummaging through the cupboards of the TARDIS kitchen while the Doctor ate his breakfast of toast with marmalade. "I really really really need a cup of coffee."

"Sorry. No coffee on board right now," he answered, taking a sip of his tea. "I don't drink it much. I'm told it makes me hyperactive."

She glanced over at him with a raised eyebrow. "No, you're kidding!" she said dryly. He raised an eyebrow back at her. "Figured me out already, have you?"

"Oh, I'm clever, Doctor," she replied, holding up a finger that she started shaking at him. "But if I don't get my recommended daily allowance of coffee, I become dangerous!"

The Doctor put on a mock-frightened expression as she closed in on him, holding his hands out dramatically as if to ward her off. "Oh, no! A coffee-deprived journalist! Truly one of the most terrifying creatures I've ever encountered!"

She couldn't help but laugh, dropping her hand. "Very funny! But I still need my coffee!"

He finished off his tea and toast and stood up. "All right, then. We're going to the Smithsonian today, and I seem to recall that there's a Starbucks on the way. Will that do?"

"Starbucks is still around?" she asked in surprise.

"It went interstellar! You can get your fix almost anywhere you go!" he replied, leading her toward the console room and the exit.

She shook her head and sighed. "Knew I should have bought those shares when I had the chance! Just think; I could have had…hmmm…" she paused to trace some numbers in the air, "let's see…750 years worth of dividends?"

"Blimey, you are bad at math, aren't you?" he teased. "It's 768 years now since 2008."

"Worse and worse," she groaned as they went out the door. "Well, since I'm not fabulously wealthy, you're buying!"

"I knew you'd say that!"

They walked across the Mall toward the Smithsonian complex. The entryway was a perfect reproduction of the Norman-style "Castle" of the Smithsonian Institution Building on Old Earth. But the size of the shining glass building soaring behind it nearly made Kit drop her just-purchased coffee. "It's enormous!" she gasped. "We're not going through the whole thing, are we?"

"No! Even I don't like museums quite that much! There's something in particular I want you to see," he told her, leading her through the Castle doors and into the Great Hall. "This way."

The wandered through art and artifacts from hundreds of worlds, from the American Federation, the New British Empire, the Franconian Hegemony and more. Kit flicked on her D-Snap to record the sights. But the Doctor never lingered for long at even the most amazing exhibits, keeping them on track to his intended destination. When they finally arrived there, the remainder of Kit's coffee did hit the floor.

"That's….that's a reproduction, isn't it?" she squeaked.

The Doctor shook his head. "It's the real thing, Kit, restored perfectly. They did a fantastic job, didn't they?"

Towering over them, as gleaming white as she had been on the launch pad 768 years before, was the shuttle Atlantis. She rested on her wheels, looking as if she had just landed from flight.

"Atlantis survived because we disarmed her," the Doctor said. "Her sister ships were destroyed by Torchwood in the first salvos of World War Three."

Kit had gone stock-still at his words. He touched her shoulder, and she looked at him with guilt-filled eyes. "It was meant to happen," he said gently, absolving her. "You played the part intended for you. You called on them just in time to save millions of innocent lives."

She had no answer as she looked back at the shuttle. After a moment, he said, "This isn't all I wanted you to see. Let's go aboard. But first let's keep America beautiful, yeah?"

He produced a hanky from his jacket pocket and cleaned up the coffee spill as she picked up the coffee cup. The mess disposed of, they walked up the ramp to the shuttle entry door. They passed through it into the mid-deck of the craft, and turned right through the airlock into a large, open space. "It was a little more crowded the last time we were here," the Doctor observed.

The payload bay was empty except for one computer kiosk in its center. "Getting around in here was more fun in zero gravity," he said. She snorted.

"Sez you! The only thing that kept me from puking was knowing you needed me!" she said as they crossed the deck to the kiosk.

"Now, yesterday you asked me if you'd made it into the history books," he said. "How's this for an answer?" He flicked a switch and the kiosk came to life. A recorded voice began to speak. An image of the shuttle launch appeared on the screen at the top of the kiosk.

"_The shuttle Atlantis was the flashpoint of World War Three," _the voice said_. "Shortly after her launch on February 29, 2008, a transmission from Atlantis alerted the world to the threat of nuclear weapons aimed at the Earth."_

Kit started in surprise when she saw herself appear on the screen.

"_Everything you've heard until now about the Guardian Project has been a lie. The giant battle-satellite launched today from the Kennedy Space Center is not intended to protect planet Earth from alien attack. Instead, the shuttles are carrying American nuclear warheads aimed for the Middle East and other primarily Muslim population centers."_

"Oh, wow," she breathed. The computer voice continued.

"_The shuttles Discovery and Endeavour were destroyed to prevent the launch of their nuclear weapons. The reporter who made the transmission disappeared from the payload bay of Atlantis, and was never seen again."_

"Never until now, that is," came a British-accented voice behind them. Kit and the Doctor glanced at each other, then slowly turned to see three men standing behind them, holding guns. The one in the center of the group did the talking. "Ms. Morgan, you're looking astonishingly well for a woman who's nearly 800 years old."

"What is it with smarmy guys and deadly weapons?" Kit wondered aloud. "You're the third in three days!" The man ignored her, turning his attention to the Doctor.

"And of course, the legendary Doctor," the man went on, circling around them. "You really need to do something about that TARDIS of yours. A big blue box on the edge of the Mall just stands out. You made it very easy for us to find you."

Kit glanced over at him. "Thought you said no one ever noticed it!"

The man laughed. "Oh, my dear. You'll find that as good as he is, the Doctor makes a lot of mistakes. You'd better hope none of them lead to your death."

The Doctor growled, "All right, you've got us. Who are you and just what do you want with us?"

"Actually, it's just you we want, Doctor. We need your expertise."

"Then let her go," the Doctor grated out. The man shook his head.

"Oh, no. We know full well how much you care for your companions, Doctor. She's your guarantee of good conduct."

Flatly, the Doctor said, "She's nothing to me. I've barely known her for two days." He winced internally at Kit's hurt look, willing her to understand what he was doing.

"Smarmy" apparently did understand, and called his bluff. He made a motion, and one of the other men grabbed Kit by the arm, putting his gun to her head. "If she means nothing to you, then you won't mind if I turn her over to the American authorities," Smarmy said. "She is still wanted for murder, you know." He smiled at Kit's shocked expression. "My dear, you know the American statute of limitations never runs out on murder. Even after more than 750 years. It would be the longest running cold case in history. You'll get to make the books again! Unless…"

"Unless what?" The Doctor knew what the answer would be.

"Unless you come along quietly, Doctor."

He sighed and surrendered. "I don't have any choice, do I? Where are we going?"

Smarmy smiled. "Torchwood."

* * *

Author's Postscript: So Torchwood finally appears. Cue the spooky music! 

And I want to apologize in advance for any Brit-speak errors that I may make going forward, now that I've introduced Torchwood. I'm an American myself, so I speak and write American English. And at the moment I don't have the privilege of a Brit-picker; I'm flying without a wingman (beta).

Reviews are greatly appreciated!


	8. Chapter 8 Relic

A/N: New puppies can be hazardous to the creative process. Especially when they keep you up all night, and then insist on trying to chew on your computer cords all day! Not to mention piddling on the linoleum and pooping on the carpet. (Both will survive, though.)

Hence the delay in this latest chapter. But baby Sugar doesn't get all the blame; I still needed to work out my direction! Note to new writers: Outlining is always a good idea! And so is research; Wikipedia has been a fabulous resource.

As always, I own nothing but the desire to tell new stories about my favorite characters. Doctor Who belongs to the BBC. The idea of a sigma stasis box was inspired by Julian May's sigma fields in her Galactic Milieu/Pliocene exile saga; which I highly recommend, by the way. I don't believe they're in print any longer but you should be able to find them in a library or used bookstore.

* * *

**Tracking Torchwood **

**By **

**Lariel Romeniel**

**ChapterEight - Relic**

Unsurprisingly, Torchwood was housed inside the British Embassy. It was also unsurprising when the Doctor was welcomed to the Torchwood offices as some kind of hero, just as he had been in London centuries before. It was at best uncomfortable to be applauded as he strode through the halls, but still not surprising. After all, Torchwood needed something from him. He'd wait for the other shoe to drop.

When it did, it didn't just surprise him. It shook him to the core.

After their arrival and the applause, they were escorted to a private office, given tea, and told to wait. Once they were alone, the Doctor warned, "Don't touch the tea, Kit. It could be drugged."

"Don't drink tea anyway," Kit countered, walking to the office window and looking out. "Well, we won't be getting out through the window this time."

He joined her and looked down. The ground was more than 100 floors below. "Just as well," he said. His voice became tight. "I'm not leaving this place until I know what they're doing here."

She looked over at him. "When we met, you told me Torchwood was a sore spot. I think it's time to fill in the blanks, Doctor."

He didn't answer. Softly she said, "It's about her, isn't it?"

He turned and faced her, anger, regret and sadness reflecting in his brown eyes. "Her name was Rose, Kit. Rose Tyler. And I lost her because of Torchwood."

Quickly, quietly, he told her about the ghost shifts, the Cybermen invasion, the Daleks. About those final, desperate minutes in the Ghost Room. And despite his sorrow, he couldn't keep from sounding proud of his Rose and the way she'd risked herself to make sure all the invaders went into the void. "When I met her she was a shopgirl, Kit. Just 19 years old, hardly any education or experience of the world. But she ended up saving it. Just like she saved me, a relic of a dead planet."

The doorknob turned. Kit dashed tears away quickly. "Tell me the rest later," she whispered as the door opened.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Doctor," said the new arrival, a red-haired woman in a crisp beige linen suit. Smarmy followed, carrying a large silvery box. "It took us a little while to get this out of secure storage, but I think you'll find it very interesting. Mariah Yates, Director of the Alien Artifacts section of the Torchwood New D.C. Branch," she said, reaching out for a handshake. The Doctor ignored her outstretched hand, and she dropped it after an awkward moment.

Smarmy placed the box down on the coffee table in the midst of the office. Yates noticed that the tea was left untouched. "The tea not to your liking, Doctor?" she asked.

"Nothing here is to my liking," the Doctor retorted. "If you know me, then you know that I don't appreciate being kidnapped or having my companion threatened at gunpoint."

Yates glared over at Smarmy. "Smithers! I told you the Doctor and his companion were to be treated as honored guests!"

"Director Yates," Smarmy…no, Smithers snapped, with emphasis on the first word, "I don't tell you how to handle your alien playthings. I expect you to have the same respect for me as Director of Alien Contacts. I do what is necessary. Especially since the Doctor is known to have killed Torchwood employees."

"What you think is necessary has led to a very high body count, Director Smithers," Yates shot back, a venomous emphasis on his title. "You can leave us now."

Smithers fixed Yates with an angry stare, then stalked out of the office. She pursed her lips and closed the door behind him. "Formerly Royal Navy," she said by way of apology. "He tends to be a bit too much by the book. And the Torchwood book still classifies you as a deadly enemy, Doctor."

He regarded her through narrowed eyes. "Yet you're not afraid to be alone in this room with me and my companion. Who, I should warn you, is deadly in her own right."

Yates smiled at him. "I don't merely go by the book, Doctor," she answered. "I read between the lines, and I know there's much more to you than what's written. I know you have your own, somewhat alien sense of honor; that you never kill without reason; and that you cannot resist a mystery. I have one here for you." She motioned toward the box on the coffee table. It was a dull silver rectangle, taking up the whole table. On one end was a set of buttons, one of them glowing with a red light. "Inside this sigma stasis box is an object found in the asteroid belt of the Vanuatu system 150 years ago. None of our people have been able to figure out just what it is. I was hoping you might be able to help."

The Doctor ran a hand over the box. "A sigma stasis box is not a common storage method," he said. "The field takes a lot of power for such a small area. Why are you using one?"

Yates smiled. "I knew it would interest you, Doctor!"

"My only interest is in preventing Torchwood from doing something stupid again," he replied harshly. "Answer the question, Ms. Yates."

"The object was broadcasting a signal that we couldn't turn off," she told him. "We didn't want the signal to attract any unwanted interest, so it was put into the sigma to wait."

"To wait for what?" he asked.

"For you."

"Awfully confident of you," Kit said. Yates answered, "We knew the Doctor would turn up, eventually. He always does. He's spent quite a bit of time sticking his nose into Torchwood business since 2006."

"For good reasons," the Doctor and Kit said in unison, then looked at each other in surprise. "Great minds think alike," Kit continued.

"All I want is to know what you think of this," Yates said. She pushed one of the unlit buttons on the end of the box. It glowed green, and the box's sides shrank back into the button panel, leaving the object inside exposed for scrutiny.

The Doctor dropped to his knees in front of it, his eyes wide and his mouth open in shock. His hand hovered over the object, as if he was afraid to touch it. As if it would disappear if he did. "You said this came from the Vanuatu system," he asked in a whisper.

"Yes. 150 years ago," Yates answered. Her tone had dropped too. "Do you know what it is?"

The object was a black cylinder, just under a meter long and about a half-meter in diameter. It was carved with a swirling symbol he hadn't seen in years. One he'd never expected to see again.

Slowly, he said, "I don't know what this is, Ms. Yates. But I do know where it's from. That carving is the Seal of Rassilon. This is a relic of a dead planet. Just like me," he murmured. He looked up at the women.

"This came from Gallifrey."

* * *

Reviews are greatly appreciated. 


	9. Chapter 9 The Message

A/N: The puppy's settled, my computer is not! Crashed constantly while I was writing this; thank heaven for auto-save! (Another note to new writers…HIT SAVE OFTEN!)

We're replacing the hard drive tomorrow, but that means I probably won't be able to get the update done till Tuesday. Sorry!

As always, the Doctor is not mine, I want a TARDIS, and Kit does belong to me.

* * *

**Tracking Torchwoord Arc Two**

**By **

**Lariel Romeniel**

**Chapter Nine - The Message**

"What's Gallifrey?"

Kit's puzzled question broke the silence that had hung in the air for a long moment.

The Doctor had returned to studying the cylinder. "A dead planet. A place that no longer exists in time or space." He looked back up at her. "My home."

He stood and walked around the cylinder, studying it carefully. He went to one end, bent at the waist and looked at it upside down. "Hm." He straightened, walked to the other end, squatted and squinted at it. "Hm-hmmm." He waved his right hand along the length of it, then bent close to the carving and sniffed. "Hmmm." Finally he straightened up, ran his hand through his hair and looked at Yates. "You said it was broadcasting a signal when it was found. There's no signal now."

"How do you know?" Yates inquired. He huffed in irritation. "Humans and your limited perceptions! Trust me, I know. There's no signal now. Any idea why?"

Yates shook her head. "None at all, Doctor. We check it every few years in a sigma-fielded room, and the monitors showed there was always a signal before. There's nothing different about it now."

"There is something different, though," Kit said suddenly, a thoughtful expression on her face. "Till now you've never had the Doctor in the room. Maybe the signal is gone because it's been answered."

"Some kind of psychic response to me? Or at least to a Gallifreyan? Interesting theory, Kit," the Doctor mused. "Let's put it to the test." He laid his hand on the carving of the Seal. At the contact, the carving rose up from the body of the cylinder. A split formed lengthwise along the device, and the cylinder split open on the table.

"Bloody hell," Yates whispered.

"It must have read the skin cells and moisture on my hand. And it's keyed to a Gallifreyan genetic code," the Doctor said. "Kit, you were right. Good thinking." He stood back as a white light shone up from the cylinder and began to resolve itself into a holographic figure.

As the figure came into focus, the Doctor got his second shock of the day.

"My old friend. If you're seeing this, it means that I am dead, along with all of Gallifrey. It means that you are alone. I'm sorry. So sorry."

"You're not to blame," the Doctor whispered. "Romana."

She was dressed in the formal robes of her office. Her face looked tired and careworn, the effect of a long war bitterly fought. She continued, "Doctor, as I record this, you are on the front lines at Arcadia, and the planet is about to fall. When it does, you will have to exercise the final option, just as we discussed here in the Panopticon months ago."

She paused for a moment, seeming to choose her words carefully. "I know you, and I know that you'll blame yourself for all of this. My friend; my love," the Doctor took in a sharp breath at that, "none of it was ever your fault." The holographic Romana smiled bitterly. "But I also know you'll never believe me. I know you'll punish yourself by running headlong into danger as much as possible, until you run out of regenerations and die a true death." He closed his eyes for a moment and bowed his head. _Ah, Romana, how well you knew me. So I would have done if not for Rose._

He looked up again as she went on, sharply. "That cannot be, Doctor. You cannot expiate your guilt at the price of your life. So, as your President, I give you this penance instead. Within this cylinder you will find a vital relic of Gallifrey. It is a part of the Matrix, preserved in a compression drive. If the final option is used, our plan is to send this drive and others through space and time so they might survive. Each one you find will lead you to the next.

"Gather the pieces, and rebuild. Gallifrey may be no more, but the Time Lords can be again. They must be again. Someone must watch over space and Time, and you cannot do it alone."

Another smile, a tender one this time. "My dearest friend, you were never meant to be alone. Nor were you meant to be the last. Rebuild the Time Lords, Doctor, in your own image. I cannot think of a better. Remember, you have my friendship and my love. Forever."

The hologram faded. The Doctor ran trembling hands over his face. "I was wrong before," he murmured. "_You_ were the noblest Romana of them all."

"Doctor?" He glanced over at Kit, who was watching him with concern. "Another story I'll have to tell you later, Kit," he answered. He reached into the cylinder and drew out its treasure, a long metal tube carved with niches and crenelations at intervals along its length.

Yates spoke up. "She mentioned a compression drive."

"This is it," the Doctor said, turning it over and over in his hands. "Beautiful workmanship."

"It looks more like some kind of scepter."

He looked at her disdainfully. "In Gallifreyan culture, craftsmanship and beauty are just as important as efficiency in technology. For some reason, you humans have decided technology and art are mutually exclusive."

"She also mentioned a Matrix," Yates pressed further.

"And that's all you're going to know about it," he answered. "I won't let Torchwood pervert this."

"Is that all you think of us?" snapped Yates. "Doctor, don't tar us all with the same brush. I'm Mariah Yates, not Yvonne Hartman. Oh, yes, of course I know about her. Idiot, she was, and I'm not like her. I joined Torchwood because I'm a xenoarchaeologist, and Torchwood has the best resources on alien cultures. I have no interest in ultimate weapons or British domination." Her voice softened. "Doctor, I know the story of you and your Rose. I know what Torchwood did to you. I promise you that not all of us are like that.

"The woman in the recording…Romana? She gave you a mission. Rebuild the Time Lords. I'd like to see that happen. Will you let me help?"

* * *

A/N: I figured Torchwood needs more than one dimension. They can't ALL be like Yvonne; else Jack wouldn't go to work there! 

Hope you liked this; it actually is my favorite chapter so far in this arc. Can you identify the classic Who episode reference in here, and do you know which episode it was?


	10. Chapter 10 Flight

A/N: Still don't own anything. Except Kit and Mariah. More notes at the bottom.

* * *

**Tracking Torchwood Arc Two**

**By **

**Lariel Romeniel**

**ChapterTen - Flight**

The Doctor stared down at Mariah Yates. Let her help? Trust her? With the last bits of Gallifrey? He'd sooner have trusted the Master with his TARDIS. Yet…

As Kit had already pointed out, there would be no escape through the window this time. And he was quite sure that Smithers was hanging about, just waiting for a chance to add to his body count. Yates could be their only way out.

Still, he had to be certain. Without warning, he reached out and pressed his hands against her temples.

He closed his eyes while images flowed into his mind from hers. The wonder of discovering new, alien cultures. The pleasure of digging through ruins under a strange sky. The excitement of finding bizarre treasures. The joy of unlocking the secrets of a long-dead world.

He looked further at her thoughts and feelings about Torchwood. Gratitude for a chance to explore, mixed with contempt for Smithers and other Torchwood employees who believed their mission of defending against alien life meant wiping that life out.

Then, the Doctor got his third shock in less than an hour. Underlying everything else was a profound sympathy for him, and an image of…Rose?

He looked a little deeper, and found the emotions of a romantic young woman who'd discovered the story of the Doctor and his Rose, buried in the archives of Torchwood. Found the empathetic heartache, and the wish that things had been different. Or that they could be changed.

Startled, he released her and stared at her wide-eyed. "I…I'm sorry, Mariah," he stammered. "I don't usually take such liberties, but I had to be sure."

"Quite all right, Doctor," Mariah replied calmly. The whole exchange had taken less than a minute.

Kit glanced between them, puzzled. "What was that? Some kind of Vulcan mind meld?"

The Doctor sighed. "There's no such thing as a Vulcan mind meld, Kit. Add it to your list of things to talk about later. Mariah, where do we go from here? I rather doubt that Smithers will just let us go run off on this interstellar treasure hunt."

She thought for a moment. "We put the drive back into the sigma and take it out of here. We can say that we need to bring it to the main lab so you can look at it. That will get us to the lifts. I can get us out of the building once we're off this floor."

"Sounds too easy. I shoulda brought my baseball bat," Kit grumbled as the Doctor returned the drive to its cylinder and Mariah pressed the button to reactivate the sigma. Once the field slid back into place, the Doctor picked up the box and nodded to Mariah. "After you."

Mariah led them out of the office. "We're taking this to the main laboratory," she told her secretary. "The Doctor believes he can better help solve the mystery there."

They followed her out to the lift while she nattered on about Torchwood projects, the Doctor making appropriate rejoinders here and there. When the lift came, they stepped in quickly. Mariah breathed a sigh of relief as the doors closed and she hit a button on the panel. "No sign of Smithers."

"No sign yet," Kit corrected. "And I hate to sound like an ingrate…but… the exit is downstairs. So why are we going up?"

Mariah smiled. "Because Smithers won't expect it. Besides, who says down is the only way out?"

Kit looked over at the Doctor. "Are you sure about this, Doctor?"

He nodded. "I've been in her mind, Kit. She can be trusted."

Kit scowled a little. "Yeah, we're definitely going to talk about this little Jedi mind trick thing of yours."

He rolled his eyes. "Kit, there's no such thing…"

She finished the sentence: "As a Jedi mind trick. I figured that. Are we there yet?"

"Top floor, end of the line," Mariah announced. They stepped out. The Doctor set the sigma down, then stepped back into the lift with sonic screwdriver drawn. He aimed it at the lift controls. After a quick whir, he put it away and joined the women back outside. "That should slow down any pursuit…" he said, trailing off as he took in their surroundings.

They were on the top floor of the British Embassy tower. High above them was a glass ceiling, decorated with arches of titanium. A huge sculpture of twisting titanium bands floated in the air above them.

"Jiminy Christmas," Kit whispered in awe. "How does it stay up?"

"Simple antigravity controls," Mariah answered. "This is the Embassy's Grand Ballroom, decorated with our finest alien artifacts. Those titanium bands up there are from Solanaria," she continued as she began pointing things out, "and that's a Tiranean oil fountain over there," identifying a graceful looking fountain with turquoise liquid flowing from the top. Garish paintings on a long wall were "from the Third Dynasty of Miranis, and that is the Fire of Aldarian," a three-legged stand with a long green flame licking upwards. "But those aren't what I wanted you to see," she went on. She led them further into the room, under and past the titanium sculpture so they could see what else hovered above.

"Either I've lost it," Kit said slowly, "or that's a flying saucer."

"Actually," the Doctor said, "it's a Lhasanesisarian scout ship."

"The pride of our collection," Mariah beamed. "In complete working order. Carries up to four passengers. This is our way out."

She walked over to the wall with the paintings and took one of them down. It concealed a panel with lit buttons and corresponding dials. "All I have to do is get it down. Let's see…this pair controls the sculpture, and this," she pushed a button and then began turning a dial slowly, "will bring the saucer down."

The craft began slow descent to the floor. "It's fueled up," Mariah continued, "but it will take a few minutes to get its systems online."

She helped the Doctor stow the sigma inside the ship when it reached the floor. He slid into the pilot's seat and began flicking at switches. "You know how to fly this?" Mariah asked.

"Oh, you've seen one flying saucer, you've seen them all," he replied cheerfully. The craft started humming. "Ah! That seems to have worked! Another minute and we should be ready for takeoff." Suddenly the humming gave way to clanking, and lights on the panel began blinking red. "Or maybe not." He began pushing buttons madly.

A shout rang through the room. "Stop right there!" Smithers barreled through the fire escape door, followed by his two cohorts. All three had their guns drawn.

Kit immediately hit the panel buttons that held the titanium sculpture up, and then quickly turned the dial next to it to off. Gravity took effect, and the sculpture crashed down, crushing Smithers' lackeys and leaving huge chunks of twisted metal blocking the way from the lifts. She stared at the red fluid that began to leak out from under the pieces, then focused again as she heard movement in the debris. "Doctor, I've bought us time but we still have company! Get that thing ready to go!" she shouted.

"I'm trying!" he shouted back. Mariah emerged from the saucer. "We've got a problem!" she told Kit. "Can you hold them off?"

"Yates!" a voice growled. Smithers was working his way free from the wreckage of the sculpture, his head and shoulders visible but everything else trapped out of sight. Blood ran from a dreadful gash on his head. "You are through here!"

Mariah laughed bitterly. "So what? I resign!"

Smithers roared in response and pulled one arm free. "Doctor!" Kit hollered.

"I'm working on it!" came the reply, followed by the sound of banging.

Smithers was pulling himself out and climbing over the metal bands. "Cripes! Mariah, help me!" Kit exclaimed. As Smithers made his way down the ruins, the two women tipped over the Tiranean fountain, sending oil spilling over the floor between them and Smithers as he recovered his gun. Then Kit ran to the Fire of Aldarania, hoisted the stand, and stuck the green flame into the oil.

The oil and fire reacted spectacularly, huge flames shooting up from the floor. Smithers screamed as he tried to clamber back up the titanium chunks, out of the path of the fire.

Inside the saucer, the Doctor could smell the burning oil. "Time to get out of here," he muttered, considering the controls one more time. He made an educated guess and thumped the panel in one particular spot. The ship began humming again. "Yes!" he shouted, pumping his arm in victory. "Kit! Mariah! Get in here; we're leaving!"

The women dashed back to the saucer. On the other side of the flames, Smithers screamed one more time in outrage and emptied his gun at the saucer just as its hatch closed.

"Hang on!" the Doctor shouted as the saucer lifted off. Kit took the co-pilot's seat and braced herself as he pushed the throttle forward. The ship burst through the windows of the Grand Ballroom, soaring out into the open air.

"Wahoo!" Kit hollered. "We did it! How was that for girl power, Mariah…Mariah?"

The other woman was slumped in her seat behind the Doctor. Kit swore and moved to her side. "Mariah?" She gasped as she saw a red stain spreading on the side of Mariah's beige linen jacket. "Doctor, she's been shot." She took off her sweater and wrapped it around the other woman's body to try to stop the bleeding.

He clenched his jaw. "We have to get back to the TARDIS. Just one problem."

"What?"

"We're in restricted airspace, and now the U.S. Air Force has come along for the party. Strap Mariah in and get up here."

"She could bleed to death if I don't maintain pressure!"

"Kit, we're all dead if you don't help me!" he snapped back. He looked at the screen indicating incoming targets. "I think we're in for a dogfight."

* * *

A/N: Dogfight? Eeep. What have I done? My muse is laughing at me right now. I hadn't intended that…but she will have her way. Guess I've got to do some research on dogfights now. 

The titanium sculpture is based on architect Frank Gehry's design for his new hotel in Rioja, Spain, featured in Vogue this month. Take a look at some of Gehry's work; I swear he's an alien!

Please review; I not only like feedback but love to "talk" Who with other fans! Thanks to all of you who have reviewed so far!


	11. Chapter 11 Dogfight

A/N: I don't own anything you recognize from the show. Of course.

* * *

**Tracking Torchwood Arc Two**

**By**

**Lariel Romeniel**

**Chapter Eleven - Dogfight**

Kit cursed as she tied off her sweater around Mariah as tightly as possible to stop the bleeding, then buckled the injured woman into her seat as tightly as she could. She returned to the co-pilot's seat and strapped in. "What do I do? Man the weapons?"

"There aren't any."

She shot him a look of terrified disbelief. "What do you mean, there aren't any?"

"Just what I said!" he replied. "There aren't any! The Lhasanesisarians are pacifists. This is a research scout. Nothing more dangerous than flares on board!"

"Oh, great! So how do you have a dogfight without weapons?"

He grinned wolfishly. "It's not just about firing missiles, Kit. Dogfights are really about flying skill. And I happen to be an excellent pilot!" He glanced at the screen again. "Bogeys at two o'clock. Hold on!"

He pulled the joystick sharply left, spinning the saucer around back in the direction they'd come from, then shoved the stick forward to accelerate and swaying it back and forth in evasive maneuvering. "I'll keep them off our tail, Kit. I need you to find the cloaking device control and turn it on."

"Don't you know which one it is?" Two more fighters had joined the chase, heading straight toward them.

"If I did don't you think I'd have turned it on by now?" he shouted as he flipped the saucer edgewise to fly between the other craft.

"I don't know!You seem to like playing chicken with the fighters!" she shouted back as she began looking at the controls. "Damn! They couldn't label these with words, like 'Cloaking Device?' How about this one?" Kit reached for one bright red button. The Doctor slapped her hand away. "That's for the cargo door!" He put both hands back on the joystick, making the craft zig-zag to avoid fire.

She pointed to another button. "Then this!"

"That's the flares!" A sharp turn to the right. Mariah moaned in pain.

"Hang in there, Mariah! Doctor, what about this one?"

He took the saucer in a low loop around the New Washington Monument, sending tourists below running for cover. "Not that button! It'll start the landing sequence!"

In exasperation, she exclaimed, "I'm running out of options here! Got a wild guess?"

"Look for a blue triangle!" he answered, sending the saucer steeply upward. Kit scanned the many buttons on the panel and spotted the right one. "Got it!" she said, and pushed it.

As Kit hit the button, the Doctor jerked the joystick back and pulled on a lever. They jerked forward in their seats as the saucer stopped dead in the sky. They watched the target screen, where four images were quickly approaching their position…and then shot past them, unable to see the now-cloaked vessel. The Doctor smiled in satisfaction. "See? I told you we don't need weapons. Just skill. The best pilot is always top dog in a dogfight."

She rolled her eyes at him as she unstrapped herself. "And you say I drive like a maniac!" She got up to check on Mariah.

He set the lever back and pulled the joystick to send them toward the edge of the Mall, where the TARDIS was parked. Behind him, he heard Kit curse again, and glanced back. Mariah was shivering, and her breathing had become labored. "Doctor, she's lost a lot of blood," Kit said. He nodded and turned his attention back to his flying.

"We're almost back to the TARDIS. I can treat her in the medical bay," he said, looking at his timeship in the viewscreen. Two men were nearby, making a poor attempt at looking casual. "Ah. Some Torchwood people hanging about. Let's give them a diversion."

He pressed the button for the flares once, then a second time. One flare after another shot from the cloaked saucer, landing in a wooded area half a block from the TARDIS. As he expected, the Torchwood guards responded by running toward the impact zone.

The Doctor set the saucer down in front of the TARDIS and hit the hatch button. "Kit, get the sigma box. I'll take Mariah."

He unstrapped the injured woman and lifted her carefully. He followed Kit out across the short space to the TARDIS. "Key in my jacket pocket, Kit!"

Trying to balance the sigma with one arm, she pulled the key out and whirled to open the TARDIS door. In a moment they were safe inside. Kit put the sigma down, and then helped him set Mariah in the chair for a moment, holding her there to let him work the console and send them back into the time vortex. As the rotor started moving, he turned back to the women. "Let's get her to the medical bay."

"Too late, Doctor," Mariah whispered. She loosened Kit's sweater from around her body and let it fall, blood-soaked, to the grate. Too much blood.

Together, they moved her down from the seat to the floor, trying to make her as comfortable as possible. "Doc- doc…" Mariah tried to talk, but couldn't. She grasped his hand and guided it to her temple. Nodding in understanding, he entered her mind one more time, then withdrew as she let out a last breath.

Kit stared at him, too stunned for tears. Together they laid Mariah back down. He stood and returned to the console, entering a set of coordinates.

Some time later, they stood under a strange purple sky. They had laid Mariah to rest in the place he saw in her last thoughts; a place she had once explored in search of alien wonders. They watched the sun set, and wordlessly returned to the TARDIS.

Once again, the Doctor returned them to the vortex. Kit leaned back against the console next to him, lost in thought. After a few more quiet moments, he squared his shoulders, bracing himself for what he needed to say. She had to know.

He turned to her and finally broke the silence. "What Smithers said was true. People get killed around me, Kit, too easily. If you don't want to stay…." His voice trailed off, his body tensed as he waited for her reaction.

She turned her head to look at him. "What Romana said was also true. None of it was your fault. So no blaming yourself! And you weren't meant to be alone, either. Not the way you get into trouble!" she said with a gentle smile. He smiled back, and she went on, "I want to stay. But we've got a lot to talk about. I want to know everything. Romana, Gallifrey, Rose...everything."

He laughed a little nervously. "That could take a while."

Her smile grew a bit wider. "Time machine, right? I figure we've got a while, and a bit more. And I told you before; I'm a very good listener."

He relaxed with a sigh, glad he wouldn't be losing another companion so quickly. Romana's message had left him too unsettled to want to be alone. "All right, then. We'll go over to the library, and I'll tell you everything you want to know."

She fell in step beside him as they left the console room, and said, "Then we can figure out how to do what Romana told you to do."

_Rebuild the Time Lords. _The thought made him stammer, "Kit…I…that's…it's impossible."

Wasn't it?

**End of Arc Two**

* * *

A/N: I know, I know. I create a nice Torchwood employee and I kill her. And she was a 10/Rose shipper! Worse and worse. I'm evil, I know. This went in places I wasn't really expecting. So, what do you think? 


	12. Chapter 12 Impossible

Nope, don't own it. Constructive criticismwelcomed.

**

* * *

**

Tracking Torchwood Arc Three

**by**

**Lariel Romeniel**

**Chapter Twelve – Impossible**

They talked for a long, long time in the library. Rather, the Doctor talked and Kit listened, absorbing everything he told her about Gallifrey, about Romana, about the Time War.

And about Rose.

Kit sat curled in one of the burgundy wing chairs, a range of emotions playing across her face as she listened. Joy, wonder, sympathy, anger, heartbreak – all reflected in her blue eyes as tears streamed down her cheeks. When he was done, she asked just two questions. Inconvenient questions, of course. Inconvenient because he didn't like the answers he had to give.

_Can we rebuild the Time Lords?_

He didn't see how, even if he managed to find all the artifacts of Gallifrey. A few relics and one survivor did not a civilization make.

_Can we get back to Rose?_

No. Two universes would collapse. It was impossible.

She wiped her tears angrily at that, looked at him almost defiantly for a long moment, and told him she needed to go think for a while. He nodded and picked up a book as she stalked out of the library.

Some time later, he took his glasses off and put the book down in frustration. He'd read the same chapter over and over, and it still made no sense. He just wasn't up to reading at the moment. Romana's message, Mariah's death, old memories - all had left him unsettled. He decided he really didn't want to be left alone with his thoughts right now, even if Kit seemed unreasonably angry over things no one could control. He got up and set out to find her.

He was fairly certain she hadn't gone to bed despite the very long day, because she hadn't bidden him good night as she had the previous nights. As he passed her room, he stopped and listened at the door. No music coming from within. He already knew she couldn't sleep without her "tunes," so she was definitely still up and about.

He wandered down the corridor, peeking into empty room after empty room. He hoped the TARDIS hadn't let her get lost.

A taste of indignation at the back of his mind. "All right, old girl. I know. You don't lose people you like. So where are you hiding her?"

He rounded a bend in the corridor and came to a partly open door. A thumping sound came from the other side, along with the sound of an irritated curse. He furrowed his brow and pushed the door open, only to have both eyebrows fly up as he saw the room. "I could swear this used to be a cricket pitch," he said.

Kit turned toward the door, shouldering her bat. "It was, but I don't play cricket. So the TARDIS was kind enough to turn it into a baseball diamond for me."

A blue sky arced over a regulation baseball diamond, with a chain-link backstop standing between himself and Kit. A pitching machine stood on the pitcher's mound. Kit pointed at it and said, "That thing is wicked fast. Struck me out a dozen times already, but I think I've got its number now."

"Is this how you do your thinking?" he asked as he walked over and leaned against the backstop.

She swung the bat in slow motion. "Yup. I need to clear my head if I'm going to get any sleep, and a little batting practice always helps me focus. It also helps me stop being ticked off at the universe. Which, by the way, has not been very fair to you, my friend."

Humans and their dogged, often illogical insistence on fairness. It was one of the things he loved about the species. "Nothing is fair in life, Kit," he returned with a slight smile.

"Sez you. Even if you're right, it doesn't mean I have to like it." She turned back to the batter's box and assumed a batting stance again, feet planted apart with knees bent, back elbow held high, the red bat waving in a small circle above her head as she waited for the ball.

The machine spat a ball out. _Thwack! _The ball sailed off to left field. "Nice hit," the Doctor complimented, trying to be polite. Kit looked at him balefully.

"That was a pop fly. Easy catch even for a bad outfielder." She positioned herself again. _Thwack! _Another pop fly. She shook her head with a frustrated growl. "My hitting is so off right now," she said. "But I'll get it back with practice. 'Few things are impossible to diligence and skill.'"

The Doctor puzzled over her choice of words. "Samuel Johnson?" he asked.

She took another swing. The ball flew just a little straighter this time. "Yeah. Whenever I thought I'd never get something right, my dad would throw all these little quotations at me. Like: 'Nothing is impossible to a willing heart.' John Heywood," she continued, taking one more swing. This time the ball flew far and true. "Now that's a good hit! Maybe now I can get some sleep!"

She pulled the helmet off and fluffed her dark brown curls back into place as she walked around the backstop. "One more quote for you, Doctor. 'Whoso loves, believes the impossible.' Elizabeth Barrett Browning."

She handed him the bat. "Just think about it. Take a few swings. You might be surprised. Good night!" she said over her shoulder as she headed out the door, leaving him behind, looking utterly bemused. It looked like he would be alone with his thoughts after all; but now those thoughts weren't quite so troubling.

Hours later, he was under the TARDIS console when she shuffled in, wrapped in a blue and white dressing gown, her hair a tumbled mess and sleep still in her eyes. "You know, we forgot to bring coffee back to the TARDIS yesterday," she grumbled by way of greeting. Definitely not a morning person.

"We were a little busy with other things, like dodging bullets and fighters, remember?" he answered, connecting a couple of wires. "We'll see what we can do today. It depends on where we end up." He pulled himself up off the floor to push a button. "There! Now let's see what the TARDIS makes of this!"

She shook herself more awake as she looked at his handiwork. "You've wired the compression drive to the console!" she said.

He nodded. "It began broadcasting a signal to the TARDIS as soon as I removed it from sigma field. Connect the two, let them talk to each other and the TARDIS should be able to pull some coordinates. We've got a beacon to lead us to the next piece that Romana sent out. And then…we shall see what we shall see."

Kit smiled widely. "You did give it some thought. Batting practice was good, eh?"

He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Well, more of a cricketer, me. But yes, I did do some thinking, and I remembered something I'd forgotten. 'How many things, too, are looked upon as quite impossible until they have been actually effected?'"

He looked at her expectantly, but she shook her head. "Sorry. Dad just taught me the short, pithy quotes. I don't know that one."

"Pliny the Elder. Roman author and natural philosopher. Quite an intelligent fellow, ahead of his time. Died too soon," the Doctor said, shaking his head. "I told him to observe Vesuvius from Misenum, but he just had to take a galley to Stabaie. He got too close to the volcano and died from the poisonous gases. That set Earth's scientific development back by a century at least."

She looked at him curiously. "How do you know that?"

He shrugged. "Time Lord. All there is, all there was, all there ever could be…runs around in here constantly," he said, pointing to his temple.

She raised an eyebrow. "That explains a lot," she said wryly. He answered only with a raised eyebrow of his own, then turned his attention to the TARDIS monitor.

"We've got coordinates," he said. "Moyambe, in your year 3429. Hmm. Another human world, Haitian Confederacy. You're in luck, Kit. Coffee happens to be their primary export."

She brightened at that. "Tell me there's no Torchwood or smarmy guys with deadly weapons and we're golden!"

"No Torchwood," he grinned, "and I don't think we'll have too much trouble with smarmy blokes or deadly weapons. As I recall, the Moyambans are very friendly. Their one quirk is that they're very religious, but that should be no trouble at all."


	13. Chapter 13 Treasure Hunt

All I own is my imagination and hopefully enough skill to put words together in an entertaining way. Anything you recognize belongs to the BBC. (That would be the Doctor and the TARDIS.) Everything else is my own creation.

Thanks to those of you who've reviewed, and especially those who've put me into their favorites. Special shout-outs to Sarah and Emma, who always brighten my day. And thanks to those on the Doctor Who Concrit community on LJ, who helped me cheer up a bit. Yes, I'll be posting this series over there too. Yes, I know I should have had them read it first. Just doing things backwards!

* * *

**Tracking Torchwood **

**Arc Three**

**by**

**Lariel Romeniel**

**Chapter 13 – Treasure Hunt**

They ran through the TARDIS door and pushed it shut. They spent a few moments leaning against the door, staring at each other, panting for breath. Then Kit finally gasped out, "You never said the religion was voodoo!"

"Kit, I swear to you, the last time I was on Moyambe, they practiced traditional Haitian voodoo," he protested. "And traditional Haitian voodoo is nothing like that!"

She pushed herself off the door and walked up the ramp. "Oh, that's comforting! I was nearly a human sacrifice! And you!" She reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small, soft doll about six inches tall, with a scrap of brown pinstriped fabric and a lock of brown hair stitched onto it. She looked from the voodoo doll to the Doctor. "Nice likeness. They could have tortured you with this!"

"Nah," he said, taking the doll from her. "They'd already done their worst by tearing my suit and pulling out some of my hair. That still hurts, by the way," he continued, rubbing the injured area.

"Poor baby," she replied sarcastically, clearly still upset over the whole thing. The priestesses had taken her clothes and put her in a white dress that was very tight and very revealing. Then they'd strung her up on a post. The giant snake draped around her neck had apparently been the last straw, and it looked as though her deep well of sympathy was dry for the moment. "Suck it up."

That made him laugh. "And I thought I was rude! But Kit, they couldn't have tortured me with this thing. Voodoo dolls don't really do anything at all, unless you're weak-minded. Which I most definitely am not."

Kit gave him a slightly disgruntled look. "I may test that theory sometime," she said. Then her mouth quirked in a lopsided smile. "And dammit. We forgot the coffee."

The Doctor shook his head in amusement. "You need to get your priorities straight! We did get this." He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a violet crystal. "I haven't seen a data crystal like this in a long, long time. Very clever of Romana to use these. Interesting how the Moyambans used it to try to invoke Papa Legba. The change in their religious practices may be connected to the arrival of this crystal." He started walking around the console. "Now, if my guess is correct…and my guesses usually are…this needs to go with the compression drive."

He reached the spot where the drive was connected. He studied the carved niches for a moment, and then inserted the crystal into one of them. It began to glow. He nodded in satisfaction. "Just as I thought. We'll give the TARDIS some time to sort it all, and we should have coordinates for our next stop. Easy. And while she's at it, she could synthesize some coffee for you."

Kit looked a bit uncomfortable, and not because of the dress. "Uh, she's been trying to do just that. Some things should never be synthesized. Not that I don't appreciate the effort!" she said, giving the console a friendly pat. "Let's just let her work on the next coordinates. I'm gonna go change. Think we can avoid the Temple of Doom next time around, Doctor Jones?"

"Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies," he answered with a smile. She rolled her eyes.

"Guess you'll be lying to me a lot, then," she said as she headed off. "I'll see if there's a bullwhip in the wardrobe room."

They did manage to avoid other Temples of Doom. Not that there weren't other challenges along the way…

Lopsang, where a cylinder was embedded in an ice wall a thousand feet up. The Doctor found climbing boots, crampons and an ice axe in the TARDIS wardrobe, and Kit watched with her heart in her mouth as he climbed the wall and fixed a rope at his destination. He melted the ice with the sonic screwdriver, grabbed the cylinder and slid down the fixed rope, shouting like a kid on a roller coaster all the way down. His grin when he reached the ground was wiped away instantly by a loud crack above them. They looked up to where a fracture was spreading rapidly from the point where he'd melted the ice. They scrambled back to the TARDIS to get out of the path of a crashing serac…..

Hanauma, where the signal came from deep water. This time the cylinder had landed in the midst of a coral reef that served as home to a family of giant eels. Eels with very sharp teeth, a nasty disposition and an even nastier toxin secreted through their skin. They retrieved the cylinder and returned to the TARDIS, but Kit spent the next few hours being very, very sick…

Aguanga, where a gambler had acquired the cylinder and the crystal inside. The Doctor had to play a tough game of five-card stud for it, with Kit as his ante. The game won and the crystal secured, he mollified her by telling her there was no way he could have lost. Not with his poker face, his ability to count cards…and his knowledge of all that is and all that ever could be. Of course he'd cheated! Unless she really wanted to spend the rest of her days as a casino cocktail waitress….

Disney World, not the park in Florida, but a whole amusement planet. They hid the TARDIS in one of the many tunnels that ran under the park grounds and waited until closing, and then snuck quietly into the spot where the next crystal was waiting. Inside the treasure cave of The Pirates of the Caribbean, of course. As they returned to the TARDIS, Kit treated him to a few choruses of "A Pirate's Life For Me." Sung very off-key.

The drive's niches were now filled. Crystals of violet, amber, emerald, scarlet and blue winked in the light of the console room. "One crystal for each Time Lord chapter," the Doctor murmured.

"So now what?" Kit asked. He looked over at the TARDIS monitor.

"Well, the drive and the TARDIS are talking to each other again. It looks like our treasure hunt isn't quite over," he said, pushing a few buttons. "There's an awful lot of data flowing through here. It could take a whole day before we get our next coordinates."

"So does that mean we can do some of the rides?"

He looked up at her. She was practically bouncing in excitement. "Kit, you used to live right next to Disney World. Aren't you tired of all that?"

"That was Disney World. This is Disney WORLD!" she exclaimed. He looked at her eager face, and relented.

"Get some rest. I'll wake you when the park opens again. Just two things," he said, holding up two fingers. "One: no 'Small World.' And two: No singing with the pirates, hmm?"

"Deal!" she beamed, then trotted off to bed.

By the time they returned to the TARDIS late the next afternoon, he'd decided that while it had been fun overall, he should have insisted on more conditions. No spinning teacups, for starters. Especially not right after lunch.

No visits to the Mad Hatter's shop. He took off the piece of ridiculous piece of red-feathered green felt she'd insisted was perfect for him. Peter Pan, indeed. No respect for the dignity of a Time Lord.

Oh, perhaps the teacups had made his mood as sour as his stomach. After all, he'd dueled in pyjamas and worn a paper crown at Christmas once. So much for Time Lord dignity. But still..

Never, never again would he let anyone get him near the Enchanted Tiki Room. _Ever. _The song was still echoing through his head. And it didn't help that Kit was still singing it.

Off-key.

He winced as he approached the console monitor. "Kit, quiet, please." He looked at the readout and started shaking his head. "Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no!"

She moved next to him and looked at the screen. "What's wrong? Did she get the next destination."

His shoulders slumped. "Yes, she did. Cardiff."

_Again._

He was beginning to think a return to the Tiki Room wouldn't be so bad after all.

* * *

A/N: Okay! So I figured out what to do with the voodoo!

The number and colors of the crystals are based partly on information about Time Lord society in Wikipedia; five different chapters are named in that entry so I decided to stick with that number. Any other canon issues are covered by these simple rules: 1. There are no inconsistencies in science fiction. 2. If you find inconsistencies, see Rule 1.

And yes, the Enchanted Tiki Room song is one that wil NEVER get out of your head. Unless you drive it out. With a sledgehammer. :-)


	14. Chapter 14 Inevitable

_A/N: Don't own it. This chapter is slightly revised as of 8/12/06._

**Tracking Torchwood Arc Three**

**By **

**Lariel Romeniel**

**Chapter 14 – Inevitable**

"We'll be landing in Cardiff, Wales, the ninth of May, 2007, about half past three in the afternoon," the Doctor announced unenthusiastically. Kit looked at him curiously. "What's so bad about Cardiff? My great-grandparents came from there."

"It's not so much a problem with Cardiff," the Doctor answered, rubbing the back of his neck. "It's just that every time I go there, I nearly get killed."

She raised an eyebrow. "And just how is that different from nearly everywhere else we've been?"

He smirked. "You have a point." He turned his attention back to the console. "Hmmm. We seem to be having a problem locking onto the beacon. It's almost as if something is blocking the TARDIS from making a complete connection."

"So what do we do?"

He pushed a few buttons. "I can get a general fix on the signal, and the date is right. So it shouldn't be too hard for us to find the next cylinder. We'll park the TARDIS in an inconspicuous spot and then look around."

It was Kit's turn to smirk. "So you admit it. People do notice the big blue box."

"Certain people," he answered. "Torchwood in particular, and I don't want them sniffing around. Now, let's see…." He pushed one more button and studied the monitor for a moment, then smiled. "Ah, perfect. A warehouse. We'll tuck the TARDIS away amongst all the crates, and then we'll go exploring."

The time rotor stopped with the familiar thump of landing. He grabbed his coat as they headed to the door. Before pushing it open, he stopped to look at her. "One thing. No chance you're out there in Cardiff visiting distant relations? I don't want you to run into yourself and cause a paradox."

She smiled and shook her head. "No, never been to Cardiff. I do know exactly where I am today, though. Reading Ann Coulter the riot act on live TV, and then getting fired as anchor of 'Miami Mornings.'" She shrugged at his raised eyebrows. "That's how I ended up as a one-woman band for Florida News Network. No one else would touch me!"

"Well, everything does happen for a reason, Kit," the Doctor said as they went out the door into the warehouse. "If you hadn't been fired, you'd never have been at Cape Canaveral that day. We wouldn't have met and started World War Three. We wouldn't have gone to New D.C., and we wouldn't have found Romana's message. Which eventually led us here. It's almost a perfect circle," he said as they worked their way through the maze of crates. "Things work out, Kit. Not usually the way we expect them to, but I think the universe laughs at long-term plans. So…you told off Ann Coulter?" he asked as they left the warehouse and started toward the Millennium Centre.

"Yeah," she nodded. "You know my parents were killed on 9/11. I take great exception to the way she criticized some of the widows, and I let her know it. Very colorfully. Although they cut my mike after I called her an 'inhuman evil bitch.'"

He laughed out loud. "Well, you got one out of the three right."

She stared at him. "Beg pardon?"

"Ann Coulter's not human. Vellian. And the Vellians aren't really evil. Just..hungry," he said with a half-shrug. "They feed off strong emotions. American politics in particular are a virtual feast for them. So much division and anger there. Vellians gorge themselves on it."

She was staring at him disbelievingly. "It's true! Look at the most controversial political agitators of any period, and you're most likely looking at a Vellian. The more controversy they can stir up, the more emotion they generate, and the more they get to feed. And then they start breeding." He shuddered just a bit at that thought. "The Time Lords used to keep tabs on them to make sure they didn't make too much trouble on any one world. But since the Time War, well…I could spend all my lives on Vellian control, but there's too much else to do. You humans need to figure out how to get along politically without a babysitter."

"Well, that explains why politics have gotten so nasty over the past few years," Kit said. She furrowed her brow in thought. "But you said I only got one of the three right. You already covered inhuman and evil."

He looked up at the sky, deciding how to put it, and then back down at her. "Well, that third word you used refers to a female." He stopped there to let her figure it out.

Her eyes widened. "You mean…she is a HE?" Kit began to laugh, and he laughed along with her. "Doctor, you've gotta tell me who else!"

"Oh, I think you can guess!" he chuckled. "Give it a try!"

"Ummmm. Pat Robertson?"

"Right," he nodded.

"Rush Limbaugh?"

"Of course!"

"Jerry Falwell?"

"Could you doubt it? But you know," he held a finger up, "there are liberal Vellians too. Al Franken, Hillary Clinton, Howard Dean.."

"Jerry Brown?"

He shook his head. "Nah. Alien, but not Vellian," he said, smiling. She was bubbling over in laughter. "I've gotta say," she giggled, "traveling with you…it's an experience!"

_I love it. _A shadow crossed his face at the Rose-echo in his mind. He started to look up to the sky again to clear his head, then stopped short and stared into the distance ahead. His sudden silence made Kit stop and look at him oddly. "Everything all right?"

Slowly, very slowly, he shook his head. "No. No, it's not. I know where the next cylinder is." He raised his arm and pointed one long finger ahead. She followed his gaze, and her grin melted away. "Oh, _crap_."

"That's putting it mildly," he replied, dropping his arm. "Because we have to go in there."

"There" was a squat-looking building, all shining glass and white concrete. Emblazoned across the top of the building in tall black letters were the words he'd been dreading, yet expecting to see.

_Torchwood Institute._

Inside that building, a blue icon was flashing on a particular computer screen, sending a long-rehearsed plan into motion. The Doctor was coming to Torchwood.

It was, after all, inevitable.


	15. Chapter 15 How to Break into Torchwood

A/N: This chapter was really tough; hope it suits. And no, I don't own it.

**Tracking Torchwood**

**Chapter 15 – How to Break Into Torchwood**

"_We have to go in there." _

Easily said, the Doctor thought. The trick was in the doing. Or, to be more precise, the doing without getting caught.

First order of business: reconnaissance. Kit insisted on doing that alone, arguing that it was highly unlikely anyone at Torchwood would recognize _her_, especially not in dark glasses. But if he was spotted near the place in broad daylight, she claimed, he might soon be starring in an episode of _Alien Autopsy_. That earned her a chuckle and a nod of reluctant agreement, followed by an admonishment to watch her step. After promising to be extra, _extra_ careful, cross her heart and hope not to die, she headed off toward the Torchwood building, armed with her trusty video recorder. He waited at a sidewalk café, nose buried in a newspaper, relieved when she finally reappeared. Waiting was something he'd never get accustomed to, even when it was in his own best interests.

Next step: preparation. They headed back to the TARDIS to review the video and wait for nightfall. "Three hours to sunset," said the Doctor as they entered the console room again. "That gives us time to get ready for some breaking and entering. Let's see that video."

He took the recorder, plugged it into the TARDIS console and moved to the monitor to look at the pictures. "Our best point of entry will probably be here," he said, freezing the video. "Service entrance by the garbage bins. Hm. You even got the angle from the door looking out. Do I want to know how you managed to get that close without being caught?"

"Oh, I did get caught," Kit said brightly. "But I do a good stupid tourist act. Confused the guards with enough rapidfire Spanish that they just told me to move along. And no, you don't want to know what I said to them! So, once we're in, how do we find one little cylinder in that big building?"

"That's the easy part," he said, tapping his temple. "Just like all the other beacons, this one is operating on a psychic wavelength as well as on a radiofrequency."

"Sort of a sixth sense thing?"

He sighed. "How do you humans get around with your limited perceptions? You're close enough, though. Finding the cylinder will be child's play. I'm more worried about getting past the security cameras. But I have an idea for that as well."

He pulled up one of the floor grates and trotted down the steps to rummage through some equipment before continuing, "We feed a bit of fake video into the system to cover our tracks," he said, handing some bits and pieces up to her. "I can use this…and this…and this…and I need your iPod."

She gave him a dark look as he bounded back up the stairs and took the parts from her. "I need it to build a transmitter while you put together the video," he continued as he spread the pieces out on the console. "Unless you want to take on Torchwood security again?"

She threw her hands up in surrender and started toward her room. "All right, but I want it back the way it was!"

"It'll be better!" he promised. "I need the duct tape, too. And…do you have a set of tweezers?"

She turned back with a raised eyebrow. "Would some bailing wire and chewing gum help?"

"Couldn't hurt!" he replied, already setting to work.

Some time later, Kit was staring incredulously at the finished transmitter. He'd gutted her beloved iPod, stuck bits and bobs inside and outside the casing, and wrapped it up in duct tape with a makeshift antenna trailing out. "Not exactly state of the art," she observed.

"But it will serve the purpose," he said. "What about our fake video?"

While he'd been tinkering, she'd been working with her video, altering the color and light balances and looping it until it was a reasonable fake of a surveillance video. "Nice work," he complimented as he downloaded the video to the iPod transmitter.

"Hey, I'm a professional," Kit answered. She looked at her watch, set to local time. "So, we've still got about 90 minutes yet to sunset. What next?"

"Dinner. Never go breaking and entering on an empty stomach. Low blood sugar can slow down your thinking," he said, putting on his coat and slipping the makeshift transmitter into the pocket. "There's a place 'round the bay that I've been to once. Never did get to finish my meal there. Had to run before we were even served. Come on."

"Am I dressed all right?" Kit asked as she fell in step next to him. He glanced over and looked her up and down, black long-sleeved blouse, black pants and soft-soled black shoes. "I think the dress from Moyambe might be better…" He deftly dodged the elbow she aimed at his ribcage and opened the door. "Just joking! You're fine. Black's always good for dinner..or for the well-dressed Kit-burglar."

"Very clever," she smirked. "I burned that dress, by the way."

He glanced over at her in the gloom of the warehouse. "I thought I smelled smoke after that trip. Warn me the next time you plan a bonfire in the TARDIS, all right?" They left the warehouse and headed outside.

This time he got his steak and chips, and enjoyed them immensely. Blon Bel Fotch Passameer-Day Slitheen might have been a criminal, but she did have excellent taste in restaurants. He hoped she'd have better taste in careers in her second chance.

And the conversation was much more pleasant this time around. He'd told Blon that his stomach was strong enough, but talking about Raxacoricofallapatorian execution methods hadn't sat all that well. Might've been just as well that they'd never gotten to eat.

After dinner and some excellent coffee – for which a long-decaffeinated Kit was very grateful – they headed out into the night toward the Torchwood building, cautiously circling around toward the service entrance. He reached into his coat pocket to turn on the transmitter, then drew out his sonic screwdriver as they reached the door.

Door opened, fake video continuing to roll, they entered the dragon's lair. He closed his eyes and concentrated for a moment, then motioned toward the nearby stairwell.

Up, up, up the stairs quickly. Despite its squat-looking exterior, the Torchwood building had a lot of floors. And, of course, the beacon would be at or near the top. By the time they reached the right floor, Kit was winded and limping slightly. "This is why I hate StairMasters," she gasped in a whisper, bending over to try to catch her breath and rubbing at her right knee. "Too many stairs just kill my bad knee. I'll be okay, just need a minute." She looked back up at him. "Go on, we don't want to waste any time. I'll catch up."

He nodded, understanding that time was of the essence. A quickly whispered, "Watch yourself," and he was through the door into a dark sea of cubicles. The sense from the beacon was insistent, tugging him through the blocks toward a corner office. Cautiously, he opened the office door and stepped in.

It was there, on the desk across the floor. Another transport cylinder. He moved quickly to pick it up, then froze at a voice behind him in the darkness.

"I knew you'd show up eventually. I've been waiting a long time for this, Doctor."

The Doctor turned slowly as a lamp flicked on. "Jack."

As he completed his turn, Jack Harkness quickly drew his sonic blaster, obvious surprise on his face.

"Who the _hell_ are you?"


	16. Chapter 16 Reconciliation and Revelation

A/N: Thanks to my reviewers, and to PsiGen, who unknowingly led me down a line a particular line of thought for this chapter.

This chapter refers to another one of my stories, "Hold On To Life," and a visit to old Traken.

**Tracking Torchwood Arc Three**

**Chapter 16 – Reconciliation and Revelations**

Jack Harkness. Here in Cardiff, with no idea who he was threatening with that sonic blaster. This would have to be handled very carefully.

Slowly, the Doctor raised his hands up, fingers spread wide to show he was not a threat. Jack kept the blaster up. "Who the hell _are_ you?" he demanded again.

The Doctor kept his voice low and calm. "Jack. It's me. It's the Doctor."

Jack shook his head, disbelieving. "Buddy, you're not dealing with just any Torchwood drone here. I used to travel with him too, and I know what he looks like. Black hair, gorgeous blue eyes, leather jacket…now, you're not bad, but you're not him." Jack's voice turned bitter. "Guess he really got over his aversion to traveling with pretty boys."

The Doctor could almost hear the undertone: _But he didn't come back for me. _There were fences to mend here, once he got Jack to put down the blaster.

So, Jack thought he was a companion. Time to set things straight. "Jack, I'll tell you again. I'm the Doctor. You know the stories about the Time War and the Time Lords. Surely you heard about regeneration as well?"

The blue eyes widened, and Jack's hands started to tremble. "Just a myth."

"No myth, Jack," the Doctor said gently. "It's me. I regenerated after the Game Station. New face, new body. But still the same Doctor."

Jack jerked his hands into steadiness, keeping the blaster trained on the Doctor. "Prove it."

The Doctor kept his eyes locked with Jack's and stepped closer to him, speaking very softly. "The last time the three of us were together. You, me and Rose. You were about to go fight the Daleks while we set up the Delta Wave. You told Rose she was worth fighting for, and you kissed her. Then you told me you were sorry you met me, because you were much better off as a coward. You were wrong about that, you know." The Doctor was at arm's length now. He reached out and gently pushed Jack's blaster down. Jack didn't resist as the Doctor continued, "Then you kissed me, and told us you'd see us in hell. How would I know any of that if I wasn't the Doctor?"

The blaster dropped to the floor. Jack gaped at him for a moment, then whispered, "It is you. Really."

The Doctor grinned at him. "It's me. Really. Hello!"

"Hello…" Jack moved closer to him, studying him minutely, taking in all the newness. He reached a hand out and laid it on the side of the Doctor's face, making him take in a breath at the gentleness, the intimacy of the touch. "You look so much younger," Jack whispered. He reached up with the other hand and slid it into the Doctor's brown mop. "Love the hair." Tenderly, he splayed his fingers on either side of the Doctor's head. "I'm glad it's you," he said softly. "I wouldn't want to do this to the wrong guy."

Jack tightened his grip and pulled the Doctor's head forward for a vicious head-butt. "That's for Rose!" he shouted, following it up with a punch to the stomach. "That's for Jackie Tyler!" he went on as the Doctor staggered back. Then an uppercut left to the jaw. "That's for Mickey Smith! And this one is for me!" he snarled as he delivered a roundhouse right. He began raining blows down, shouting, "You let her die! Damn you! You left me behind and you let them all die!"

"Get off him!" A dark blur rushed into the room. Kit had dashed in and tackled Jack from behind. The impact made him release the Doctor, who fell back into the desk. With a growl, Jack pushed Kit off his back. She fell to the floor next to the sonic blaster. She scooped it up and pointed it at Jack's back. "Hold it right there!" she ordered. "I think I can guess how to use this thing!"

Jack slowly put his hands up and turned so she was on his right side, the Doctor on his left. "I see you have a guardian angel with you, Doctor. You seem to have a talent for picking up pretty faces."

Kit sighed. "Here we go again. Another smarmy guy! But this time, _I _have the deadly weapon."

The Doctor pushed himself back upright from the desk, gingerly touching one corner of his mouth and then looking at the blood that came away on his hand. "Jack, I'd like you to meet my bodyguard. Kit Morgan, may I present Captain Jack Harkness?"

Kit's mouth dropped open, even as she kept the blaster on Jack. She knew the name from the Doctor's stories. "That's Jack?"

"That's Jack," the Doctor confirmed. She shook her head incredulously and asked again. "_That's_ Jack?"

The man in question let out an exasperated sigh. "Yes! I'm Jack! You gonna shoot me or what?"

"No, she's not going to shoot you, Jack," the Doctor said, stepping over to her to try to take the blaster. She moved a step away from him and kept the blaster up, demanding, "You gonna hit him again? 'Cause if you do I _will_ shoot!"

"Kit, he's not going to hit me again! Are you, Jack?" the Doctor asked, suddenly not certain of the answer. This was a different Jack Harkness, glowering at him with hands held up. Jack's body was still tense as he shook his head. "No, I won't. But you should choose your friends more carefully, Angel. I've read his history. He gets pretty little girls like you killed."

"Jack.." the Doctor began to defend himself, but Kit's voice overrode his. "I'm not a little girl. I think I can watch out for myself, Captain!"

"So did all the other pretty little girls. But they died anyway! Even the one he loved," Jack hissed. His tone was bitter. "I hope you at least told Rose how you felt, Doctor. She loved you, and I hope she died knowing she was loved too."

The Doctor's eyes darkened with emotion. "She's not dead, Jack."

The other man's eyes hardened. "Never thought you'd lie to me, Doctor. I've seen the lists from the Ghost Invasion. I know about Rose, about her mother and about Mickey."

Pain laced the Doctor's voice. "The lists are wrong, Jack. Rose isn't dead. It's worse than that. Much worse." He stepped closer to his old friend. "There's so much to tell you. Words would take too long. Jack, you once said you'd never doubt me. If that was true, then trust me now?"

He could see the conflict in Jack's blue eyes. The wanting to believe, wanting to understand, wanting to know. Anger over all that had happened. The fear of more heartache. Want won out over anger and fear, and he nodded.

Now it was the Doctor's turn to frame Jack's face softly with his hands. Unsure what to expect, Jack closed his eyes…

And a door swung open.

Uncertain, Jack hovered at the door. Where would it take him?

"Oi! You're holding things up here, Captain!"

That voice. The one that had haunted his dreams after the Game Station. Jack stepped through the door to see the speaker. Black hair, gorgeous blue eyes, leather jacket.

The Doctor. His Doctor. Standing in what Jack recognized as the video room in the TARDIS. "How?" he managed to croak.

The Doctor smiled. "We're in my mind, Jack. I know it's not a comfortable place for a human, so I thought it best for you to see me the way you used to know me. The way you used to trust me."

No bitterness in those words; Jack was surprised. The Doctor continued, "First, you need to know – I didn't want to leave you behind on the Game Station. But I had to. History demanded it. Look."

He motioned to the video screen, which flickered to life. As Jack watched, he believed. He understood. He knew.

Rose had saved his life. The Doctor had saved hers and saw the future which demanded that Jack be left behind.

Regeneration.

A phantasmagoria of impressions and adventures, whirling past almost too quickly to comprehend. Then the whirlwind slowed to show the devastating images.

The Ghost Shifts.

The last, desperate moments in the Ghost Room of Torchwood London.

Bad Wolf Bay.

The screen faded to black. Jack was shaking with emotion. "You said it was worse..I…I can't imagine…." He swallowed and then asked, "She said she loved you. Was that…" he trailed off, not sure how to ask the question.

The Doctor smiled, understanding Jack's meaning. The video screen lit up again with one more image, of the Doctor's current incarnation and Rose, dancing that night on Traken. The emotion in the memory-Doctor's eyes brought a lump to Jack's throat. The image faded away.

"You can imagine the rest," the Doctor said. Then, "On second thought, forget I said that."

Jack chuckled as he blinked away tears. In a few blinks, he found himself back in the Torchwood office, staring into those soft brown eyes. As the Doctor lowered his hands, Jack threw his arms around the Time Lord for a fierce embrace. The Doctor smiled and hugged him back, nodding at Kit, who lowered the blaster.

"I wasted so much time hating you, for her sake," Jack whispered. "I came here to find you, to…"

"To beat me to a bloody pulp?" the Doctor asked with kindly amusement. Jack chuckled again weakly as he released the Doctor. "Among other things. When I saw that thing," he motioned to the cylinder, "I recognized the symbol from the TARDIS. I knew you'd eventually show up to claim it. And I was ready for you. I set up a scan for the TARDIS energy signal, and I set up a security system bypass so no one else in Torchwood would know you'd arrived. I wanted the first shot."

"A security bypass?" asked Kit. She looked at the Doctor. "You trashed my iPod for nothing!"

"Priorities, Kit!" the Doctor admonished. "Jack? After you got the first shot, then what?"

Jack shrugged. "I was going to make sure you were stuck here forever, where you wouldn't be able to hurt anyone ever again."

"You'd have watched me get locked up, examined, probably dissected?" the Doctor asked quietly. Jack looked down at the floor uncomfortably, confessing, "Didn't think that far ahead."

"You usually don't," came the gentle answer. "Jack, I'm so sorry."

Jack looked back up. "Don't apologize for things you couldn't have controlled," he said firmly. "Now what?"

"We take this, for starters," the Doctor said, picking up the cylinder.

"What is it?" Jack asked. "No one here has been able to figure it out."

"Good," the Doctor said. "This is a relic from Gallifrey, my homeworld. I don't want Torchwood experimenting with it. Jack? What's wrong?"

The other man's face had gone pale. "Gallifrey? I never knew that was the name of your homeworld. Doctor, there's something else you need to see here."

Jack led them out of the office, through the cubicles toward the lift. As they stepped inside, he pulled a key card from his wallet and inserted it in a slot above the floor selector buttons. An additional row of buttons lit up above the slot, and Jack pressed one of them. "Special storage, two floors up."

The lift arrived at their destination. Jack led them out and through a row of tall stainless steel cabinets. "We keep all kinds of rare oddities in here," Jack said. "A lot of stuff came over here after the London Torchwood office got trashed during the Ghost Invasion. Including this."

He stopped at a cabinet toward the end of the row. It had a keypad next to its handle, with a glowing red button. Jack entered a code into the keypad. The button turned green, and Jack grasped the handle. But before opening the cabinet, he looked the Doctor in the eye. "This was found on a London street and turned in to the police. Scotland Yard got a look at it, and then it was turned over to Torchwood."

He opened the cabinet. Inside was a labeled metal case. The label read:

_Torchwood Exhibit D41871_

_Contents: Tissue Sample, Gallifreyan_

_Acquisition Date: 30/12/05_

"Just when I think Torchwood can't shock me any more," the Doctor murmured as he took the case out and opened it. Kit took one look inside and let out a little cry as her hand flew to her mouth. "That's…that's…"

"My hand," the Doctor finished grimly.


	17. Chapter 17 Violated

A/N: Thanks again to all my reviewers; I appreciate the feedback.

Someone noted that it's nice of Torchwood to keep a spare hand lying about. Is it really?

**Tracking Torchwood**

**Chapter 17 - Violated**

It looked much worse for wear since the last time he'd seen it. Not surprising, really, considering all it had been through. Chopped off by the Sycorax leader, his original right hand had fallen hundreds of meters to the ground from the Sycorax ship, to lie on some dirty London street until someone found it. Then it was handled by who knew how many people before being vacuum-sealed and put away in this cabinet.

He put his glasses on to peer closely at it in the dim light. A bit of abrasion on the back. That was probably where it hit the ground. A wound across the index finger; perhaps the Sycorax sword fell on it? Or maybe some creature had gotten to it…Not something he wanted to think too hard about. Hm. A good deal of blood around the wrist; once cut off, this hand hadn't the advantage of instant cellular sealing as his arm had…

His dispassionate examination was interrupted by a whimpering sound. Kit had turned away, shaking as she kept her hand over her mouth. He sighed and closed the box. "You can turn around now, Kit."

She turned with one final shudder. "Next time we go breaking and entering, no dinner first. I nearly lost it just now!" She shook her head and straightened up, becoming a reporter again. "So, how's that your hand when you've got two there? Some strange Time Lord thing?"

"I'd like to know that one myself," Jack said.

"I suppose you could call it a strange Time Lord thing," the Doctor mused. "When the Sycorax invaded, I dueled their leader, and he cut this hand off," he said, pointing to the case. "It fell off the spaceship. I'd only just regenerated, so I was able to grow a new hand," and he held up that hand. "This one is about, oh, 15 hours younger than the rest of my body, give or take a bit."

"You never thought about looking for your old hand?" Jack asked. "And you say I don't think things through!"

The Doctor scratched his head, looking uncomfortable. "Well, you know how one thing drives another out of your mind. As soon as we got back from the Sycorax ship, Harriet Jones went and blew it up, and, well, I got angry. I started a bit of a rumor.."

"You started the Harriet Jones health scare?" Kit interrupted.

He nodded. "I told you that the day we met. Six words. Then back to the TARDIS to try to finish putting the new me together. Couldn't spend the rest of my life in jim-jams and a dressing gown."

"As interesting as that line of thought could get," Jack said with a grin, "let's back up a bit. You forgot one rather important little detail. A bit of yourself left lying around in a culture that's just starting to make some breakthroughs in bioscience."

Jack had caught him out and was enjoying the fact. Defensively, the Doctor answered, "I'm never at my best right after regenerating. And…" he sighed, "truth be told…I was too worried about whether Rose could accept the new me to think about much else. I was afraid she'd want to stay home. I'm slipping in my old age."

Jack's teasing grin softened to a proud smile. He put a hand on the Doctor's shoulder. "When we first met, you'd've cut off your other hand rather than admit any of that. You're not slipping. You've mellowed, and that's good," he said, ignoring the other man's sudden slight grimace at the thought of having "mellowed." Removing his hand, Jack went on, "What's not so good is that this isn't the only sample Torchwood has."

The Doctor stared at him as Kit exclaimed, "What _else_ have you had chopped off?"

"It's not that, Kitten," Jack said, shaking his head and ignoring Kit's glare at the nickname. "Cell samples were taken from this. Torchwood London was trying to clone the material before the Ghost Invasion."

A horrified look spread over the Doctor's face. Jack held up a hand and continued, "I said trying! Somatic cell transfer is still a tricky science with regular Earth organisms, and it's only rarely successful. Now, your cell structure was giving them nightmares! They hadn't gotten anywhere before the Cybermen came through and started killing or Cyberising the scientific team. The experts are all dead."

"And the samples?" the Doctor asked in a harsh voice. Seeing his dismembered hand didn't disturb him nearly as much as this…violation. This theft of a part of himself.

"Those are still in London. They're locked up at Albion Hospital, in a high-security ward. I may be head of Torchwood Cardiff investigations, but even I can't get in there," Jack answered.

"You can't, but I will," the Doctor said firmly. "I won't let Torchwood or anyone else keep a part of me for experiments."

"So, more breaking and entering?" Kit asked.

Jack held up a hand. "Hold on there, Bonnie and Clyde. I can't get you in there, but I know someone who can." He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a cell phone, pushing one button. "Toshiko? Jack. Yeah, I know it's late. Listen, can you stop by my place? I need your help. No, not with that!" The Doctor smirked at Jack's tone, and Kit hid a smile behind her hand. "I'm serious here. My place in half an hour, and if I'm anything less than a gentleman you can karate-chop me. Okay? All right. Bye." He pushed the "end" button and looked at the other two. "What?"

The Doctor was now openly grinning. "I see you're still..you."

Jack shrugged, knowing exactly what the Doctor meant. "To thine own self be true, right? We should get out of here," he said, hefting the transport cylinder again. "Kitten, can I have my blaster back?"

She considered the weapon for a moment, and looked him in the eye. "Dunno. I might need it if you're anything less than a gentleman. Or if you call me Kitten again!"

Jack put on his best wounded expression. "Angel, you're breaking my heart here."

The Doctor sighed. "Kit. Give him his blaster. Jack. Flirt later." He tucked the metal case under his arm. "Let's go."

The Doctor led the way back to the lift, Kit in step next to him and Jack trailing behind, shaking his head and muttering, "Hasn't mellowed _that_ much."

It seemed a little odd to be walking out of a Torchwood building rather than running. Having Jack's keycard made a big difference.

It was a short walk to Jack's flat. The Doctor raised an eyebrow when he saw the building. "This is where Margaret lived," he said.

Jack gave him a bug-eyed look. "I'm not sure I want to know how you know that!" he said. Apparently even Jack had a shock threshold. "That must've been some date."

"It wasn't a date!" the Doctor replied with a glare. "She pointed it out from our dinner table."

"Mmm-hmmm. That's your story," Jack countered as he opened his door. "If Rose had known you had a thing for green and scaly…."

"Jack!" The former Time Agent grinned at the warning note in the Doctor's voice. He'd missed bantering with him like this. "I'm just sayin', Doctor…"

"You're saying entirely too much! In any case, the Slitheen aren't scaly. More like…slimy. And I have a very low tolerance for slime," the Doctor finished in a lofty voice.

That was the final straw for Kit. She collapsed onto the leather sofa in a fit of giggles. The two men looked at each other and joined her in the laughter. After a few moments, she got her mirth under control and said, "I can see life on the TARDIS is going to get very interesting!"

The laughter stilled as the Doctor and Jack stared at her. She blushed a little. "Doctor, I know it's your home, and I shouldn't say anything, but...come on. It's Jack!"

The Doctor shook his head with a smile. "Impatient American! I _was_ going to ask. Jack?" He looked back at his onetime companion. "It's up to you, but…the TARDIS misses you."

Jack looked the Doctor straight in the eye. "The TARDIS missed me? Is that all?"

A lopsided grin from the Doctor. "Do you have to ask? What do you say?"

A bright smile spread across Jack's face. "I just need a couple of things. Make yourselves comfortable; Toshiko will be here in a little while."

Jack went back into his bedroom as Kit found a remote and turned the TV on, flipping to CNN. "Haven't had a news fix in ages," she said.

"Kit, this 'news' is nearly a year old for you," the Doctor pointed out as he settled down next to her. She shrugged. "Any port in a storm. Just be warned; I yell at the TV."

Jack emerged from the bedroom with a large duffle bag slung over his shoulder. "That was fast," the Doctor observed. "As if you've been planning this for a while."

Jack looked a little sheepish. "Truth be told, I've been going back and forth between wanting to kill you and wanting to kiss you for a while now."

"And we got here on one of your 'kill me' days, hmm?" the Doctor asked with a raised eyebrow. "Well, you nearly accomplished that one. But," he held up a finger and smiled, "you don't have to kiss me now."

Jack looked disappointed. "Guess your face isn't the only thing that changed. Too bad."

"Hey, look!" Kit said suddenly. "There's me!"

CNN was running a clip from her interview with Anne Coulter. Jack glanced back and forth between Kit and the television set quizzically. "How can that be you? Oh. Time ship. Where'd he find you?"

"Cape Canaveral, 2008," Kit replied. "Here comes the good part." She glanced at the Doctor and started giggling again as her former self blurted out "inhuman, evil bitch!"

Jack's eyes widened as the audio was clipped, but the image continued. When the video changed, he grinned down at Kit. "Ooh. The things you said! I happen to be a good lip reader. You may have the face of an angel, but you've got the mouth of a spacedock worker. My kind of girl!"

The doorbell rang. "Toshiko's here," Jack said. "Time for a council of war."


	18. Chapter 18 The Best Laid Schemes

**A/N:** Sorry it took so long to get this chapter up. Life kind of got in the way. Reviewers, you rock! And thanks to those who've PM'd me and put me onto alerts or favorites lists. That really really makes my day.

**Tracking Torchwood**

**Chapter 18 - The Best-Laid Schemes…**

"You're mad. The lot of you."

Doctor Toshiko Sato stared at the other three people seated around Jack's kitchen table. It was hard enough to believe that the strange man was the same Doctor she had met before when that alien spaceship crashed into Big Ben. "Long story," was the only explanation he'd give, but he knew every detail of her brief meeting with another man she'd also known simply as the Doctor. And Jack vouched for him.

Still…even more unbelievable was the request he'd made, and the plan he'd just concocted with Jack and the woman named Kit. "You two," she nodded at the Doctor and Kit, "are going to masquerade as journalists doing a story on Torchwood research at Albion Hospital."

"Right," said Kit.

"You want me to get you into the secured storage there."

"Right," nodded Jack.

"And then you plan to steal classified materials."

"Right!" said the Doctor.

"Absolutely raving mad," Toshiko said again. If it weren't for Jack's presence, she would have bolted. But in working with him, she'd learned: Jack knew things. And even madness had the tinge of sanity when he was involved.

"It's not the first time someone's called me mad," said the Doctor. "And in this case, you're right. I am mad. Mad as in angry. Those classified materials are genetic samples from me, taken without my consent. What does your ethical training say to that?"

He held her eyes with his, but she didn't quail under the intense gaze. "It's wrong, of course. But stealing them back isn't any better."

"Toshiko, do you think our bosses are just gonna say, 'Oh, I'm sorry,' and hand the samples back?" Jack asked. "Remember the Torchwood charter. They're looking for the Doctor. We're just lucky that the CCTV records from London HQ got destroyed during the Ghost Invasion. They won't recognize him in this regeneration. But that doesn't help us get at those samples. We need you for that."

Toshiko shook her head. "Bringing any unauthorized people into the secured storage is breaking all the rules."

"Sometimes following the rules and doing what's right are polar opposites," Kit pointed out. Toshiko blew out a sigh and nodded, saying, "We should get going, then. It's a long drive to London."

"Who says we're driving?" the Doctor grinned.

Toshiko began to think she might be the mad one when the others brought her into what they called the TARDIS. While she goggled at the incredibly huge interior, so much bigger than the exterior, Jack dropped his duffle bag and ran up to the console, planting a big kiss on it. "Hello, sweetheart, I'm home!"

The Doctor grinned at the warm feeling at the back of his mind. "She's glad to have you back, Jack. Your room is still the same. Now, it's been a long day and we'll all need our wits about us. Get some rest before we launch this 'mad' scheme," he smiled at Toshiko disarmingly. "Kit, help Toshiko find a spare room."

"Come on, I'll give you the fifty-cent tour," Kit told the other woman as they headed down the corridor. Jack watched them for a moment, then turned back to the Doctor. "You know Toshiko's right. This is crazy."

"I'd prefer to just take the TARDIS into the hospital," the Doctor admitted. "In and out, easy-peasy."

"But the hospital has the same temporal distortion field you picked up at Cardiff," Jack said. "R&D calls it an anti-TARDIS field, and there's one at every Torchwood facility now. They think it'll be easier to catch you if you don't have her."

"Then they don't know me as well as they think," the Doctor said with a huff. "All this fuss and bother because Queen Victoria decided she didn't like me! A whole governmental agency created just because of me! Millions of pounds in taxes over the years, spent because of me! Normally that kind of attention would be very flattering, but….would you take offense if I said I don't feel flattered?" Jack smirked and shook his head. The Doctor went on, "Jack, I need to know. How did Torchwood know the name Gallifrey? And how have you been reading any of my history?"

"Torchwood got hold of UNIT files," Jack answered. "All highly classified, but I was able to hack my way into some of it. Missed the bit about Gallifrey, but there was a lot more in there."

"Including lists of the dead," the Doctor observed. "I'm glad you still trust me after that."

Jack smiled. "There was more good than bad in those files, Doctor. A lot more good. Which is one of the reasons I went between wanting to kill you and wanting to kiss you."

"Still," the Doctor said, "good or bad, those records need to be destroyed. I had Mickey try to do it once, but I suppose the virus didn't make it past the government firewalls. I'll need to generate a new virus."

"Hold that thought," Jack said, holding up a finger before turning to his bag. From one pocket he took out a small flash drive. "I'm a step ahead of you. There's a worm here that can access every file on the governmental networks. We can plant it at the hospital. Just a little something I whipped up on one of my 'kiss you' days," he finished with a suggestive wink.

The Doctor raised an eyebrow at him. "Sorry, Jack."

Jack sighed. "Now you're the one breaking my heart! Oh, well. For now the TARDIS still loves me," he gave the console a fond pat. "For later…well, I like a challenge," he said, looking back down the corridor where the women had disappeared. He picked his bag up. "Same old room, eh? Do I have any neighbors?"

"Jack…" The tone in the Doctor's voice made Jack grin broadly as he sauntered off. The Doctor shook his head in amusement. Kit was right; life was about to get very interesting. Perhaps he should warn Jack about her baseball bat….

Some hours later, the Doctor's companions woke to find the TARDIS hidden away in a London warehouse a short walk from Albion Hospital. "Come on, you lot!" the Doctor greeted them cheerily. "Nothing like a bit of madness in the morning!" He winked at Toshiko. "And Kit, the TARDIS dug up a little something to help us with our cover." He jerked a thumb over to the top of the ramp. A video camera and tripod sat on the floor grate. She picked them up to look at them and smiled widely. "Perfect!" She skipped over to the TARDIS console and gave it a kiss. "Thank you!"

"Aw, got something for me?" Jack asked wistfully. Kit regarded him for a moment, said, "Sure," then strolled over to stand very, very close to him. As he started to lean down, she pulled the tripod up in between them. "Be a dear and carry the sticks for me?" His face fell as she turned and winked at the Doctor, who could hear Jack muttering to himself, "I _like_ a challenge," as he followed Kit out the door.

Toshiko was shaking her head with an open mouth. "Madness."

The Doctor grinned and offered his arm. "'Though this be madness, yet there is method in't,'" he quoted. She looked at him darkly, recognizing the line.

"Everyone in 'Hamlet' died, Doctor," she said severely.

"Riiiight," the Doctor drawled as they headed out behind the others. "Welll…Will did try for a less gory ending, but it just didn't work dramatically. If everyone had lived, a classic tragedy would have turned into another Coronation Street. Hamlet and Claudius would have sniped at each other for years. Now, Hamlet with Polonius as a father-in-law had some comedic potential. Could have done lots of good catfights between Ophelia and Gertrude, too. The mother and daughter-in-law relationship is always fraught with tension, and in Hamlet's case, well…that Oedipus complex could have made for interesting plot twists..." he trailed off and shook his head. "But, nah! Tragic ending for 'Hamlet.' Happy ending for us," he said, smiling down at her reassuringly.

Toshiko was not reassured.

When they reached the hospital, the Doctor looked at it quizzically. "Something's different," he said. "I can't put my finger on it, but something about this place has changed."

"A lot of places changed after the Ghost Invasion," Toshiko said. Kit shouldered the camera to begin shooting some video. "May as well make it look good," she said as she captured some shots of the exterior.

"Secured storage is up on the seventh floor," Toshiko told them. "We'll have to go through fifth floor security first, and I don't know if they'll buy this news story idea."

"We'll be able to bluff our way through with this," Jack said. He pulled a folded paper out of his pocket and held it in front of Toshiko.

"A letter of clearance for reporter John Smith and video crew, naming you and me as Torchwood spokespersons," she said, reading the letter. Kit glanced at the paper over her shoulder and flushed red. "That's not what I see here!" she said.

"Found some more psychic paper, I see," the Doctor grinned. He had a feeling he knew what Jack wanted Kit to see. Toshiko grabbed the paper excitedly. "I've heard of this stuff! Never got the training, though."

"Neither did any of the guards assigned here, and that'll be helpful," Jack said, taking the paper back. He glanced at Kit with a raised eyebrow. "Hey, Angel?" He rattled the paper meaningfully.

She glanced at it again and shook her head with a mock glare. He sighed. "Can't blame a guy for trying."

"You still haven't learned," the Doctor sighed. "There's a time and place, Jack. Come on, let's go!"


	19. Chapter 19 Gang Aft Agley

A/N: Thanks to Aibhinn for giving this the once-over (and twice-over...and thrice-over) and making it much better!

**Tracking Torchwood**

**Chapter 19 - ….Gang Aft Agley**

At first, everything went according to plan.

Go inside the hospital, get requisite creepy feeling upon entering. _Check._

Go to fifth floor security. Wave psychic paper in front of the guards, then daze and confuse them with lots of prattle and inconvenient questions until they're befuddled enough to allow entry. _Check._

Proceed to the seventh floor, head through a dizzying sequence of doors ("used to be surgical suites," Toshiko explained) and arrive at secure storage. _Check._

Retrieve the stolen genetic material in another metal case, tuck it safely away inside coat pocket. _Check._

Upload the computer worm.

_That_, thought the Doctor, was when everything went to hell.

Blaring alarms. _Check._ Well, no, not part of the plan. But par for the course, he reflected as Jack cursed. "New anti-virus program! Wasn't expecting that," he said, pushing his chair away from the computer and springing to his feet.

"I think we can expect company in a moment," the Doctor said, heading to the door.

Kit nearly ran him down as she sprinted back from where she'd been keeping watch by the lifts they had taken up. "Not that way!" she exclaimed. "I blocked some of the doors, but it won't hold them for long."

"This way!" Toshiko ordered, leading them through a set of doors on the other side of the room. The group dashed down the corridor through more sets of double doors, heading toward another set of lifts.

Lifts that were on the way up. _Of course._

They skidded to a stop and turned around. At least, the Doctor, Jack and Kit did. Toshiko's skid turned into an out-of-control slide, sending her down to the floor and slamming into the legs of an abandoned gurney parked on the side of the corridor. She tried to rise but yelped in pain.

Jack ran back and scooped her up. "Which way now?"

"There!" Toshiko gasped, pointing out a side room. It was a storage room, filled with wire racks and boxes. Working together, the Doctor and Kit moved one of the wire racks in front of the door to block it, then shoved a heavy box against the rack to brace it.

"That will keep us safe for a few minutes," Jack said. He'd set Toshiko down in a wheelchair and was kneeling next to her, gently checking her ankle. "But we're trapped, and Toshiko's got a broken ankle. Now what?"

The Doctor was looking around the room with a strange expression. "Jack…we've been in here before," he said. "Do you remember?"

Jack's eyes widened as he stood up. "No. This isn't…"

"It is!" the Doctor crowed. "The same room we were trapped in back in 1941!"

Jack's mouth dropped open as he surveyed the room. It _was_ the same place. More modern junk strewn around, but the same set of bars over the window. The room looked as though it hadn't even been painted in all this time. Toshiko was even sitting in the same damn wheelchair.

The Doctor was headed straight to the window, grinning broadly. "Doctor," Jack reminded him, "it's a seven-story drop out that window!"

"How did you get out back then?" Kit asked.

"Transmat beam," Jack answered.

Toshiko rolled her eyes. "That's not much help now. We don't have one!"

"Oh, we don't need a transmat beam this time!" the Doctor declared as he climbed onto the long worktable under the window. "Not when I've got my sonic screwdriver!" He proudly produced the screwdriver and began waving it over the concrete surrounding the bars. "I set up a resonation pattern in this concrete 66 years ago. Now with the passage of time and a little extra encouragement…I think we can get these bars knocked out." One more pass of the screwdriver, and then he tucked it away. "Jack, a hand, please?"

Jack joined the Doctor on the table, but looked skeptical. "Unless the screwdriver can suddenly make us fly, removing the bars won't help," he said.

"It's that or nothing!" Kit called as the wire rack in front of the door rattled. "They've found us!"

She pushed more boxes in front of the door, while Jack and the Doctor strained together to remove the bars. The concrete started to crumble, and both nearly fell backwards as the bars came free from the wall. Putting the metal aside, they turned back to open the window. To their surprise, more concrete began falling away, and so did the window, crashing to the outside, where a car alarm suddenly sounded.

"A little too much resonance?" Jack asked.

The two men poked their heads out of the hole left behind. "Hah!" the Doctor cried. "I thought the place looked different! They added on to it!"

Just below them was the top floor of a fairly new parking garage. Certainly new since 1941. The squealing of the car alarm was coming from a rather crushed sedan directly below the window. A delivery truck was parked next to it, leaving them with perhaps a three meter drop. The men grinned at each other. "Come on!" Jack called, holding a hand out to help Kit up on the table. "Doctor, I think you'll have to drop Toshiko down to me."

Toshiko shook her head firmly. "No. I'll only slow you down."

Jack stared at her. "Do you know what they'll do to you?" he demanded.

She nodded and glanced back as the rack rattled behind her. "Get out of here!"

The Doctor stepped down next to her. "Toshiko, you know Jack's right. But if you'll let me, I can alter your memories to keep you safe."

"Doctor!" Jack said in protest. Memory wipes were a sore subject, even when it was done with permission. He clenched his jaw as Toshiko waved it off. She met the Doctor's eyes and nodded. He put two fingers to her temple and concentrated for a moment. Her eyelids fluttered closed, and she sagged back in the wheelchair.

"Ready for another leap of faith?" he asked Kit as he climbed up beside her. Jack was pointedly looking away, getting his anger under control.

"Do you ever feel like history is repeating itself?" she asked.

"All the time," the Doctor sighed.

Behind them, the storage rack blocking the door tipped over. "That's our cue!" Jack said, stepping up next to the Doctor. "Let's go!"

They leapt.

They landed with a hard thud on the top of the delivery truck. Jack went from the top of the truck to the ground first, and caught Kit on her way down. The Doctor landed next to them, and the trio took off toward a staircase on the other side of the floor. The sound of stamping feet coming up made them turn, looking around wildly.

"There!" Kit shouted, and started running toward a middle-aged man who was just approaching his car, an older model sedan, keys in hand. She reached him and plucked the keys out of his hand. "Need to borrow your car!" she said as he gaped and she got behind the wheel. Jack followed, waving his ID. "Official government business!" he said, jumping into the back seat. "For Queen and country!" the Doctor added, getting into the front passenger seat and slamming the door shut.

Kit started the engine and roared out of the parking spot. "Why are you driving?" Jack shouted.

"That'd better not be some stupid sexist crack!" Kit shot back as she sent the car barreling down the exit ramp.

"Wouldn't dream of it, Angel!" he shouted back, holding on for dear life as they rounded the turns and flew down the ramp toward the street. "But have you ever driven in England before?"

The answer became obvious as Kit took the car onto the street -- directly into oncoming traffic.

"KEEP LEFT!" the Doctor and Jack both shouted. But the left side was blocked by a slow-moving truck, while cars were approaching on the right. Kit swore and jerked the wheel to take the car onto the curb, pedestrians scattering out of the way.

"Which way back to the TARDIS?" Kit brought the car back onto the road, knocking out a newsstand along the way.

"Head north!" the Doctor ordered.

"Which way is north?"

"Right at the corner!" Jack shouted. He turned to look out the back window. A pair of motorcycle police officers were bearing down on them. "Company behind us!"

"And in front!" the Doctor added as they turned the corner and faced an oncoming police car.

"Hang on!" Kit called as she spun the wheel around, throwing the car into a bootleg turn to head in the opposite direction. The tires screeched in protest as the car roared forward again. One of the motorcycle officers skidded out of control, the bike hitting the pavement. The other officer kept his balance and stayed behind, the patrol car right behind.

Their car sped forward. Sweat beaded on Kit's brow as she wove through the traffic. Her eyes bugged as she saw a railroad crossing ahead. The guard arm was on its way down, a freight train approaching.

"Faster!" the Doctor commanded, grabbing the steering wheel and keeping it straight before she could turn it.

"Are you crazy?" Kit cried, her foot starting to come up off the accelerator.

He pushed his on foot on top of hers, pressing the accelerator straight down to the floor, and tightened his grip on the wheel. "I said faster!"

Kit closed her eyes and screamed as the car flew across the tracks just in front of the train. Jack whooped as they made it safely to the other side.

Behind them, on the other side of the train, the police vehicles screeched to a halt. When the train had passed, the only sign of the three fugitives was the abandoned sedan, the engine left running.

A short time later, three slightly out of breath fugitives returned to the TARDIS. The door safely locked behind them, the Doctor went to the console and pulled the levers to go back into the Vortex one more time. "One question," he said, turning back to his companions. "Where did you learn to drive like that?"

Kit chuckled. "Did a story at the NASCAR driving school in Orlando. Hands-on reporting."

That should have prompted a laugh from Jack, but it didn't. His face had become serious again. "Now I have a question. What did you do to Toshiko's memory?"

"I didn't erase it completely," the Doctor answered. "She remembers being with us, but she thinks she was under the influence of a mind-altering alien drug. I even changed some of her brain chemistry to make it look good. Nothing permanent!" he said, putting up a hand at the dark look Jack gave him. "They won't blame her. They'll blame me."

"And so the legend of the Doctor continues," Jack said in a dry tone. "You know I don't like it. But I understand it. I prefer her mind getting altered by you than reamed by Torchwood."

"Can I ask a question now?" Kit chimed in. "What's in the transport cylinder that got us here in the first place?"

"Let's find out!" the Doctor said with a grin. He'd left the cylinder on the grate next to the compression drive hookup, planning to open it once he'd retrieved all the stray parts of himself from Torchwood. Now he picked it up and set it on the console. As before, he put one hand on the carved Seal of Rassilon. The cylinder opened, and from inside the Doctor withdrew one more crystal. It was clear and shining, far larger than the other data crystals they'd retrieved.

"Some rock!" Jack breathed.

"More than just a rock," the Doctor replied in a hushed tone. "The question is, how much more? Kit, take it for a moment."

She held the crystal reverently as the Doctor picked up the compression drive sceptre to examine it. "Here!" he said, still speaking softly. "Kit, the crystal, please."

She handed the crystal back to him, and he fitted it into a depression at one end of the sceptre. With that connection, the drive began emitting a low-pitched hum. Some previously dark lights on the TARDIS console came to life.

"Well, now, isn't that interesting? I've never seen some of these light up," the Doctor said in a bemused tone. He moved to one of the monitors. "More coordinates coming through. Kit, it seems our treasure hunt is still on."

"Treasure hunt?" Jack asked.

The Doctor nodded. "We've been chasing bits of Gallifrey all over time and space. Pieces that were sent away before the end of the Time War."

Kit added, "Once we find all the pieces, we're going to rebuild the Time Lords and find a way back to Rose."

The Doctor looked up sharply from the monitor. "Kit, we've had this discussion."

"So we did," she answered with a steady gaze. After a moment, he gave her a small nod.

Jack glanced back and forth between them, a thousand questions in his eyes but uttering only one. "We can get back to Rose?"

A mix of uncertainty and hope flooded the Doctor's dark eyes. "Once I would have told you it couldn't be done. But I would also have told you that nothing survived of Gallifrey except for me and the TARDIS. In the past few weeks I've found that the second isn't true. But the first? I don't know."

"I do," Kit said with the confidence of someone who didn't truly understand or want to be bothered with the laws of time and space. "With love you can do anything. You love Rose. Jack loves Rose. Hell, I love Rose and I've never met her!" Jack grinned broadly at this, and one side of the Doctor's mouth quirked up as she continued in a softer voice. "I know we can do this."

"'Whoso loves, believes the impossible,'" the Doctor murmured. "Well, I've always liked impossible."

A soothing touch at the back of his mind; the TARDIS agreeing. _It's why you and I travel, isn't it old girl? To be proved wrong?_

_Well, let's be proved wrong._

End Arc Three

A/N: Yes, we are much, much closer to Rose!


	20. Chapter 20 Madhukar

**A/N: I begin with a warning - you need to read the Interstitial titled "Terminal" first, or this chapter will not make sense.**

Apologies for the very long delay! Real life started getting in the way. And as we get closer to the conclusion, the story is becoming just a bit more complex, so updates won't be quite as quick as before

Many many thanks to my wonderful beta, Aibhinn, who made a suggestion that became Madhukar.

**Tracking Torchwood Arc Four**

**Chapter 20 - Madhukar**

Rose scowled as the phlebotomist stabbed her again with the needle. The technicians said she was a tough stick, and her arms were a bruised mess from so many previous efforts to find a good vein. "I wish you'd just use the port-a-cath, Marcy," she complained.

"Sorry, Miss Tyler, but we've talked about this before. Doctor's orders," Marcy said in a clinical tone that did nothing to convince Rose that she was indeed sorry. "No blood draws through the port-a-cath. He wants that reserved for your chemotherapy."

"Which we've stopped because it wasn't working," Rose replied. She looked down with a grimace at the small bump over her right breast where the port was located. "I may as well have the thing removed for all the good it's done me. For all the good any of this has done me."

"Oh, Miss Tyler." Marcy's voice warmed once she finally found the vein and started the draw. She put a hand on Rose's shoulder. "Please don't talk like that. Where there's life there's hope, right?" She finished drawing a vial of blood, labeled it, and quickly withdrew the needle and bandaged up the spot. "There now, all set. And no giving up! New treatments are being developed all the time. Like the shots you're going upstairs for today."

Rose smiled and nodded resignedly, patting Marcy's hand. "You're right, of course. So, same time next Wednesday?" She stood up from the lab chair and rubbed at her new wound. She left the tiny room and dug into her handbag for her appointment card as she passed through the waiting room and reception area. Room 604, four floors up. She went to the lifts and pushed the call button.

The hospital lifts normally took a long time, but they were even slower than usual today. It was a good thing there was still plenty of time before her appointment, but still… Lab days usually made her impatient, and this wait was starting to fray her nerves. Rose had just about made up her mind to try the stairs when a car finally arrived. The doors slid open, and she found herself looking into a pair of frenzied green eyes.

The eyes belonged to an impossibly thin man, with wild red hair that stood on end. He was wearing a prison jumpsuit. His hands were manacled behind his back, and guards held him by the arms on either side. "Excuse us, Miss," one of them said as they stepped out of the lift.

Rose began to move out of their way, but the prisoner suddenly lunged toward her. "You! You've been between the worlds! I can see it in your eyes! It's glowing on your skin, in your hair!"

The guards tightened their grip on the man, but Rose held her ground, a strange thrill of hope running through her. Cautiously she asked, "What do you mean, 'between the worlds?'"

"Now, Miss, don't let him disturb you," the first guard said to her. Then, _sotto voce_, he added, "A bit touched, this one."

The prisoner was straining against the guards, chanting, "You know, _you know,_ I know you know! You've been there, through the void! You've got to help me get back!"

She raised her hand up in a "wait" motion, trying to still the flood of words. He fell silent but gazed intensely at her. Then, knowing it was impossible but needing to ask just the same, she whispered, "Doctor?"

Of course, it couldn't be. She'd known that, and only felt the slightest sting of disappointment as the strange man just kept staring at her.

The other guard let out a harsh bark of laughter. "Needs a doctor, this one does! Come along, Madhukar, if that's really your name! You have an appointment down in the lab."

The guards pulled the prisoner…Madhukar…down the corridor. He shouted back to her one more time. "I've been trapped here! I don't belong in this world! You've got to help me!"

Her lift forgotten, Rose watched them go through the door to Phlebotomy. A moment after they entered, she followed.

No sign of Madhukar or the guards. Marcy was behind the reception desk, filing some paperwork. "Miss Tyler, did you forget something?"

Rose shook her head. "Uh, no. Marcy, that man they just brought in…"

"Miss Tyler, you know about patient confidentiality!" Marcy said in a loud, scolding tone for the benefit of the patients in the waiting room. Then she leaned forward and whispered, "But you're in Torchwood, so no harm for you to know. Word is that they found this fellow just floating in Cardiff Bay two days ago." Her voice got even lower. "They say he's from another world!"

Both women started at a scream of pain from back in the exam area. "This is his third trip here already," Marcy whispered as she wrote something down on a notepad. "They keep draining him like that for samples and he won't be long in _this _world!" She glanced around and raised her voice again. "Now, you're going to be late for your appointment, Miss Tyler!" She tore off the paper and pressed it into Rose's hand. "We'll see you again Wednesday, right?"

"Unless there's a miracle," Rose said absently, clutching the paper in her fist and staring back at the door leading to the exam area. She shook herself for a moment, smiled at Marcy and left the lab, unfolding the paper and reading quickly. Marcy had scrawled, _Madhukar, Torchwood, Onyx Division._

Onyx Division? Rose stuffed the paper into her pocket and headed to the bathroom down the hall. It was a one-toilet bathroom, so no risk of anyone walking in on her. She turned the water on in the sink to make some noise, dug her mobile out and pressed the speed dial for Mickey. He sounded surprised when he answered.

"You can't be finished already?"

"No, going up for the shots in a minute," she answered. "Mickey, what do you know about an Onyx Division?"

Silence on the other end of the line. "You still there?" she asked after a moment.

"Yeah, babe." Mickey's voice sounded heavy. "Call me again when you're done. I'll pick you up and we'll talk." He disconnected the call.

Six injections and two hours later, Rose was sitting in Mickey's car. His expression was grim as he put the car into gear and drove away from the hospital.

"Where'd you hear about Onyx Division?" he demanded. No "Hello, how'd it go?" Right down to business.

Rose held up the piece of paper. "Got this from Marcy in Phlebotomy. Right after some guards brought in a bloke going on about going between worlds. Going through the void. The guards said he was crazy."

Mickey glanced over at her. "If Onyx Division's got him, he's not crazy. He's the real thing. An alien." He looked back ahead at the road. "Onyx Division is Torchwood's ultra-black ops group."

"Why haven't I heard of it?"

"Because officially it doesn't exist," he said darkly. "And anything it touches disappears once they've got what they need."

Rose swallowed. "Mickey…he said he could see that I'd traveled between worlds. Through the void. He said he didn't belong here, and he asked for my help. We can't just let them keep taking him apart bit by bit!"

Mickey smirked. "Rose Tyler, Defender of Aliens," he said, drawing a wry smile from her. Then he turned serious. "This alien could have the answer we haven't been able to find, Rose. Your way back to the TARDIS."

It was the hope that Rose hadn't yet dared to voice. Even now, she just nodded.

Mickey reached over to squeeze her hand. "Let's go 'round to Jake's. See if he's up for a jailbreak."


	21. Chapter 21 The Last relic

This chapter makes me feel a bit audacious as I move to my big themes. But writing fanfic is audacious in itself. So I'll go for it!Many thanks to my beta **aibhinn** for encouraging me in my audacity. And thanks to my husband as well, who first told me Jack's story.

**Tracking Torchwood **

**Chapter 21- The Final Relic **

"So this guy..I swear, he was wearing a vintage ten-gallon hat and alligator boots…so he comes up to our table, looks at us and says, 'If you ain't from New Texas then you ain't shit.'" Jack leaned forward in his seat to deliver his punch line. "And being the bright young Time Agency recruit that I was, I said, 'So, does that mean that if you _are_ from New Texas then you _are _shit?'"

Kit put a hand over her eyes and began laughing as Jack went on, "It was one hell of a bar brawl!" Their two dark heads bent close together in mirth, oblivious to what was around them, so they were both startled by the loud thump of a metal case being hefted onto their table.

"But the girl was worth it, right, Jack? Or _was_ it a girl at the root of it all? I get your stories confused sometimes," the Doctor said as he slid into the booth next to Kit. "Has he ended up naked yet?"

"Wasn't going there," Jack growled as Kit buried her face in her hands, laughing helplessly. Apparently Jack had been telling her the edited version of the story, the Doctor noted. _Trying to be a little less blatant?_ _Interesting…_

To save a few shreds of Jack's dignity, he changed the subject. "I bring you two to the largest traveling bazaar in the universe, with an amazing selection of cuisines from nearly every known civilized planet, and where do I find you? In an American 1950s style diner!"

Kit had gotten herself under control again, and replied, "As fun and…_educational_ as it is to sample delicacies like sauteed Hanauman eel and Moyamban griot—"

"Don't forget the fried bananas!" the Doctor interjected, prompting a chuckle of memory from Jack.

"Oh, how could I? But, Doctor, sometimes a girl just wants a taste of home."

The Doctor surveyed the remains of her cheeseburger and chips…_no, fries, this is an American diner_…and snatched some fries from her plate. Kit watched him with an amused expression as he ate them and washed them down with a gulp of her cherry cola.

"When you're done helping yourself to the rest of my lunch, you want to tell us how it went?" she asked with an arched eyebrow.

Jack gestured at the case. "Looks like you got what we came for. What's in there?"

The Doctor munched on another fry thoughtfully as he looked at the case. He took another swallow of cola and replied, "If I didn't think Kit would hit me for it, Jack, I'd tell you it was something impossible." He held up a finger to forestall her protests. "So I won't tell you that. I will say all of it strains even my credulity."

He plucked a leftover pickle from Jack's plate, then leaned back next to Kit and reflected on everything that had happened in just a few short hours…

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The day had started with their arrival on the _Free Enterprise_, the largest market ship the universe had ever known. As its name implied, all activities aboard the two-mile-long vessel were dedicated to business and commerce of one sort or another, practical and prurient. Treasures (or trash, depending upon one's point of view) from everywhere could be found in the stalls and stores lining its decks. Restaurants, gin joints, hot dog stands and more awaited the hungry and thirsty shopper. And when that shopper got tired, s/he/it could retire to a range of accommodations designed for beings both humanoid and non-.

It was to the latter that the newest signal led them. The TARDIS had materialized in a lower-level docking bay designed for small yachts. While Kit gazed wide-eyed at the starry vista through the docking bay port, and Jack pointed out constellations (draping a friendly arm about her shoulders in the process), the Doctor made a quick check of the ship's directory. The beacon was located in the Vaja, one of the finest hotels aboard the _Free Enterprise_.

"Rubbing elbows with the upper crust, eh?" Kit had asked when the Doctor gave them the news. He frowned.

"Well, technically, most of the guests of the Vaja don't have elbows…or at least, nothing you'd recognize as such," he said. "But Kit, the Vaja is in a zero-gravity zone, and I don't think you've suddenly become immune to space-sickness."

"Come on, Angel, we'll go do some shopping," Jack told her. "We can find a replacement for your iPod."

"The iPod that got needlessly trashed and that someone hasn't been able to put back together?" she answered, throwing the Doctor a mock glare. Then she smiled. "Sure you don't need us in case of trouble?"

"Kit Morgan, I was getting into trouble on my own long before I met either one of you," the Doctor retorted. Then he stopped as his two companions burst into laughter. "That didn't come out right…"

A short time after that, the Doctor was in the vestibule of the Vaja, being fitted with a life support pack and helmet. He nodded his thanks to the hotel attendant, and passed through the airlock to float into the main lobby.

The Vaja was a small, exclusive hotel catering to the crème de la crème of Bose gas breathers who also preferred a gravity-free environment. Guest accommodations were arranged in tiers that rose layer by layer above the vestibule entrance.

His goal was in the top tier. The tickle in his mind, which Kit had dubbed his "beacon-sense," drove him to "swim" upwards, responding to the urge to soar rather than to fall this time. Up, up and up, until…

_Hello, Doctor. I told you we would meet one more time. _

The Doctor's eyes widened in surprise as he reached the top tier. "Told me? You told me…about a billion years from now."

A mental chuckle. _It's a particularly Gallifreyan conceit to believe that yours are the only people who can dance to the Music of Time._

The guest room was misty. The Doctor peered through the fog. "So when I saw you on New Earth, you were talking about my future and your past? But…no. If this is your past, you wouldn't know that you told me in the future that we'd meet again. But…"

_It's taxing even for my brain, and yours is quite a bit smaller. Don't hurt it trying to work out things that don't matter,_ commanded the Face of Boe as he floated into view. Freed of gravity and his environment tank, he looked less aged than when the Doctor had last seen him. His tendrils waved about him like fronds of kelp, his eyes glowing with humor and deep wisdom.

"First you call me conceited, and then small-minded!" the Doctor replied good-naturedly. "Didn't think you were one for insults."

_That's more your style, isn't it, Doctor?_ was the equally good-natured reply.

"Well, now! If your great secret is that I need lessons in manners, I have to tell you…that's no secret!"

More mental laughter as the Face circled around the Doctor. _The secret. Yes._

"The legends say you'll only share it before you die."

_I can hardly share it after I die, can I? Don't put too much stock in legends. _A metal case glided in the Face's wake. It was bronze in color, with the Seal of Rassilon etched onto the top. _I have something you were seeking._

The Doctor reached out to touch the case. "I don't understand how you have this."

_Not all Gallifreyans were conceited. One of them understood enough to entrust me with this before the end._ _Open it._

The Doctor nodded and complied, unhooking the latch and lifting the lid. He took in a sharp breath when he saw what was securely webbed within. He had expected it, considering all he and Kit had found already, but the sight still gave him a jolt. "The Crown of Rassilon," he said softly. "I thought it was destroyed with Gallifrey. Romana sent it to you?

_The last relic, to help you complete your penance. Oh, yes, I know about it._

"Rebuild the Time Lords," the Doctor murmured. "I still don't see how. This," he motioned to the case, "unlocks all the knowledge in the Matrix. But there's no Time Lord knowledge to reverse…what I did. My people are dead. The Looms are gone. Gallifrey is a burnt-out husk. Romana said the Time Lords must be again, but how?"

_Conceit again. Why must they be from Gallifrey? _The Face came close before him. _You now have what you need to rebuild what was lost. Then find the other dancers._

"Other dancers?"

_You were never alone. You have what you need,_ the Face repeated._ Use it well, and you will have what you desire._

After that, the Doctor had wandered the decks of the _Free Enterprise_, slowly making his way back to his companions while trying to absorb what he'd been told. After his pronouncement, the Face had disappeared – to the past? The future?

_You were never alone. _What did that mean? There were no other Time Lords. He knew it as surely as he knew he had two hearts. Over the centuries he'd met other meddlers and muddlers with Time, but no one like a Time Lord.

_You have what you need. Use it well, and you will have what you desire._

_You were never alone._

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The fries had gone cold, the cherry cola watered down by melted ice. Kit and Jack were thoughtful.

"So this is the end of the treasure hunt?" Jack asked.

The Doctor nodded. "It seems to be. I don't feel any more 'beacon-sense,'" he answered, inclining his head toward Kit.

She gave him a small smile. "Now what?"

"I access the Matrix. Thinking it all over, I know what I need to find." He sighed. "The trouble is, the knowledge is buried in the memories of a madman."


	22. Chapter 22 Jailbreak

A/N: Thanks to my beta Aibhinn who helped polish this chapter. (Who needs to grade papers when you can read fanfic instead?)

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**Chapter 22 - Jailbreak**

Mickey knew Jake would be more than up for a jailbreak. Life had been far too quiet for him since the Cybermen went into the Void. While Mickey headed straight for Jake's computer to begin hacking, Jake explained to Rose that he'd been recruited for Onyx Division himself, but was rejected after the first meeting.

"They said I didn't have the proper respect for procedures and authority," he told Rose with a grin.

"They were right," Mickey said dryly as he tapped away at the keyboard. "There! Found it!"

The others moved to look over his shoulders at the monitor. "Crashed into Cardiff Bay a few hours before dawn Monday," he said, scanning the report.

"Monday…There was a story in the news about an oil barge accident in Cardiff Bay Monday," Rose said, wrinkling her brow as she remembered. "There was a spill and they had to call out a cleanup crew."

Mickey snorted. He'd heard that one before, too many times. "That's what they want you to believe. Hazardous waste spills are a favorite cover story. Let's see…They dredged up his ship after sunset Monday and packed that off to R&D Cardiff, but they brought him here to London for _interviews_." He put an ominous emphasis on the last word.

"From what I heard, they're _interviewing_ him to death!" Rose said sharply.

"That's the idea," Jake said. "I did some investigating after they turned me down and I found out that Onyx is both black and wet." At Rose's confused expression, he explained, "Licensed to kill. What, you thought that was just fiction? It's not."

"How could I be at Torchwood all this time and move up as far as I have without knowing any of this?" Rose exclaimed indignantly.

"Rose, Torchwood's not the only organization where the right hand doesn't know what the left is doing," Mickey answered. "Onyx Division answers directly to President Jones. The Director can't even control them. _She _does. Most of Torchwood doesn't even know they exist. I only know because Jake told me."

"And if they knew I was on to them, I wouldn't be standing here," Jake added.

"And you never thought to tell me?" she asked angrily. "Never thought that I'd be upset to be working for an organization that captures and kills aliens?"

"Actually, I did think you'd be upset! That's why I didn't say anything!" Mickey shot back. "You seemed to be happy with your work. Rose Tyler, Defender of the Earth. How many times did you tell us the Doctor would be proud of you? And you know, he would be! Most of this Torchwood does good work. _You_ do good work. I wasn't going to take that away from you!" His voice became softer. "You'd lost enough, Rose."

She wasn't appeased. "We could have exposed them! Shut them down!"

"Weren't you listening?" Jake interrupted. "Onyx Division reports to President Jones, and she lets them do what they want. She won't let anyone stop them. And going after her won't be any better. If you haven't noticed, she has a way of suddenly winning over her enemies. What most people don't know is that it involves threatening their families."

Gently, Mickey said, "This Harriet Jones isn't like the one we knew at home, Rose. That one _was_ sorry for shooting the Sycorax down. This one doesn't know what sorry is. We try to expose Onyx Division and our families will be at risk, and I know you don't want that."

Rose looked somber. "All these different worlds and not one of them gets it right," she murmured, looking down at the floor. "The Doctor told me that once." She sighed and sank tiredly into one of the kitchen chairs. "So we can't shut them down."

"No. But we can get this bloke out of their hands," Mickey said, turning back to the computer. "He's scheduled back at hospital tomorrow for a scan in radiology. Jake, are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

A devilish smile had spread over Jake's face. "Oh, yeah."

Rose yawned widely and swayed in her seat, as if exhaustion had suddenly washed over her. Mickey looked at her worriedly. "You all right there?"

She tried to wave off his concern even as she kept swaying. "They said the shots would have side effects," she said. "I guess this is one of them. I'm so tired all of a sudden…"

She was having trouble sitting upright. Mickey caught her as she started to slide out of the seat. He lifted her into his arms, trying not to notice how much lighter she'd become in the past few months. She mumbled something, and was asleep.

"You can put her back in the bedroom," Jake offered, meeting Mickey's eyes and seeing in them the fear the other man would never show to Rose. "Let her sleep. We've got work to do."

* * *

When Rose woke up again, she was in her own bed, dim light creeping through the cracks between the blinds. Her mother was dozing in a chair next to the window, little Violet snuggled in a sling against Jackie's breast. When she heard Rose stirring, Jackie opened her eyes and spoke softly so she wouldn't disturb the sleeping infant. "How are you feeling, sweetheart?"

Rose stretched. "All right now," she said in a half yawn. "It's nearly dark! I slept the afternoon away!"

"Actually, it's nearly light," Jackie corrected. "The sun's coming up, not down."

"My God. Those shots took more out of me than I thought." Rose got out of the bed and peeked through the louvers. In the east she could see the edge of the sun beginning to inch up over the horizon. She looked at the clock, then headed toward her closet to pull out some clothes. "I've got to get ready. Mickey and I have…have to.."

She stopped, not knowing how to tell her mother that she was about to start on another dangerous adventure. Ever since the diagnosis, Jackie had fussed and worried over her older daughter, driving her to distraction with constant reminders about appointments and medications and reports of new treatments. Today's…no, yesterday's shots were the result of Jackie's relentless search for a cure.

She didn't know that a cure probably wouldn't be found on this world. Rose had never told Jackie her theory that the Time Vortex had caused the illness, and that only the TARDIS had the cure. She didn't want Jackie blaming the Doctor for taking Rose away in the first place. She didn't want Jackie blaming herself for supplying the truck that pulled open the TARDIS console. Blame was a waste of time, and Rose had no time to be wasted any more.

As Rose tried to come up with something to say, Jackie said quietly, "I know about the fellow you met yesterday. Mickey told us. And I know what you're planning. In fact, I probably know more about this mad plan than you do, since you've been sleeping."

Rose sat down on the edge of the bed opposite Jackie. "Mum…"

Jackie held up a hand. "It may be a mad plan, but if it helps you get back where you belong – back to the Doctor – then I'm all for it." She looked a bit stern. "Mickey told us everything, Rose. All of it. I just wish you'd told me yourself." Her voice and expression softened. "I do understand why, though. I never made it easy for you to come home, did I? Always questioning and criticizing. No wonder you wanted to avoid me. Rose, I never meant for that to happen. All I ever wanted was for you to be safe and happy."

"Oh, Mum." Rose's voice trembled. "I knew that. And he understood it too, better than you might think." She looked away and sniffled, then looked back at her mother. "That's why he kept bringing me back to you. He knew what it was like to be afraid for a child. We never told you, but he was a dad once. And a grandfather."

Jackie's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Really?" Then she smirked. "I can't imagine him…either one of him…changing nappies!"

Rose laughed, just as Jackie'd intended. The unintended side effect was that Violet woke up with a wail. Jackie sighed. "Speaking of changing nappies, I think this young lady is due!"

Rose followed her mother over to the nursery. As she lay Violet down on the changing table, Jackie said, "You know, I thought someday I'd be doing this for your babies. Never for another of my own." She worked quickly, now speaking with a catch in her voice. "I probably never will get a chance to do this for your babies, Rose. If you stay here, you'll die," she choked out. She picked Violet back up and looked at Rose with tears in her eyes. "If Mickey is right and this bloke can get you back to the Doctor, then I'll probably never see you again." Jackie bowed her head for a moment, studying Violet's face. "I was up most of the night thinking about that."

"Oh, Mum." Rose embraced her gently, tears pricking her own eyes.

"It's all right, Rose, it's all right," Jackie said. "I have so much now, all thanks to you and the Doctor. It's your turn now, sweetheart."

Mother and daughter leaned against each other, weeping yet each drawing strength from the other's presence.

"A beautiful picture except for the tears," came a voice from the doorway. Pete crossed the floor and hugged both of them. "Come on, my lovelies. Mickey and Jake will be here soon."

Rose showered and dressed quickly, heading downstairs to find Mickey and Jake wolfing down breakfast in the kitchen. Both men were wearing the same clothes they'd had on the day before. Rose looked curiously at them as she joined them at the table. "Did either of you sleep?"

"Nah," Mickey said dismissively. "We had too much to do to sleep."

"Biggest waste of time in the world. Used to go thirty hours straight on no sleep with the Preachers," Jake said before taking a bite of toast. Indeed, he looked more energized than he had for a long time. Plotting to strike back against Onyx Division seemed to agree with him.

After a quick breakfast, Pete and Jackie accompanied the three young people outside. "Your getaway car," Pete said, waving a hand. A Vitex delivery truck was parked in the driveway. Jake and Mickey climbed into the back and closed the doors. Pete continued, "Hospital scrubs and Vitex coveralls inside. The boys will go into the hospital as Vitex delivery men, then turn into radiologists to get to…Madhukar, was it? Create a diversion, get him out and get going."

"And what do I do?" Rose asked.

"You mind the getaway car," Mickey said as he and Jake emerged from the truck, dressed in their coveralls. "We can't take the chance of you suddenly fainting or something."

Rose scowled at him. "Mickey, I'm not the tin dog either!" They glared at each other for a long moment. Pete finally broke the stalemate.

"Rose. No one thinks you're the tin dog, whatever that means," he said. "But Mickey is thinking strategically, and he's right. If you were healthy it would be one thing. But these treatments you've been getting make you a liability in the field. You don't have the stamina you used to have. It's safer for them and for Madhukar if you stay with the truck."

"It doesn't mean you won't be helping," Jake added. He tossed another Vitex coverall at Rose. "We can use Mickey's laptop to monitor security by tapping into the hospital's WiFi. You keep us updated via mobile."

As much as she didn't like it, Rose nodded and accepted the practicality of the plan. She got into her own coverall, climbed into the truck and was off with Jake and Mickey.

They made their way through the morning traffic and pulled up to the hospital's delivery entrance. Mickey pulled up the hospital's security information on his laptop.

"How d'you know how to get into the systems here?" Rose asked.

Mickey shrugged. "Needed something to do while you were having that scan done last month, so I did some hacking," he said. "Never knew it would come in handy. Here." A grid of black and white pictures appeared on the screen; images from Security's CCTV. One of them showed Madhukar being pulled out of a car.

"That's him!" Rose exclaimed. "He looks worse."

He looked even more gaunt than before, and did not resist his guards. He was so acquiescent that only one of them was holding him, and loosely at that. The other guard got into the car to move it. As the two guards talked to each other, Madhukar looked up at the security camera, stared at it for a moment, and winked. Startled, Rose jerked back. "I think he knows we're here!"

"Let's not keep him waiting, then," Mickey said. A quick check of their mobiles, and then the two men were out of the truck. They pulled handcarts and crates of Vitex out from the back, and disappeared into the hospital.

Rose settled into her seat, watching the images on the laptop. She saw Madhukar escorted up to Radiology, and watched Mickey and Jake move through the delivery area and to a storage room where they shed their coveralls and left the Vitex crates behind. Now dressed in their scrubs, each carrying a silvery case with a red cross, they headed toward the lifts to go up to Radiology themselves. She kept following them until they reached the CT lab. Like all examining areas, the lab had no cameras to protect patient confidentiality.

Minutes ticked by. Someone tapped the truck's window, making Rose jump. It was a security guard, peering in. She quickly closed the laptop.

"You can't stay parked here, love," the guard said. "You need to move the truck."

She didn't dare move it. "I…I'm sorry. I'm not allowed to drive this truck," she said quickly. "I'm in training. My partners will be back in a moment, and we'll be on our way."

"If they're training you, they should be training you the right way," the guard grumbled. "The Vitex company will be getting a letter of complaint, parking illegally like this. It mucks up all the flow of traffic here—"

The man's litany of complaints was cut off by an alarm from inside the hospital. The guard ran toward the door. Rose flipped the laptop back open. Several of the pictures showed clouds of white smoke billowing through the hallways. She flipped open her mobile and pushed the button for Mickey.

"A bit busy now, babe," he said tersely when he answered. "We're helping to evacuate the hospital. Start the truck, we're on our way. All three of us."

She could hear sirens approaching as she turned the key in the ignition. Fire trucks and ambulances were pulling up around her truck.

The driver's side door flew open, and Mickey climbed in. Behind them, Rose heard the truck's back door slam shut. Jake slid open the window to the cab as Mickey drove off, weaving through the emergency vehicles.

"Mrs. Moore's smoke bomb recipe still works!" Jake crowed. "And Rose, we've got your friend."

She turned to see Madhukar's grinning face in the window. He reached a long hand out and touched her face. "You believed me! You came, you came," he chanted. "Now we can both go home."

Rose felt that thrill of hope coursing through her veins again. "Home? How?"

His green eyes sparkled. "All we have to do is find the door."


	23. Chapter 23 Memories and a Madman

A/N: Sorry it took so long to update; I'm working on several parts of this at one time. And life keeps insisting on getting in the way.

Thanks to Aibhinn for beta services and reassurance. Any errors or trampling of canon is on my head.

* * *

**Tracking Torchwood Arc Four**

**Chapter 23 – Memories and a Madman**

"So you need to get into the memories of a crazy person."

The Doctor looked over at Kit as they walked back toward the docking bay. The idea obviously worried her. "Well, maybe I shouldn't have put it exactly that way. Omega went mad _after _being sucked into the antimatter universe. The information I need from the Matrix would of course have been recorded _before_ that. Although," he paused thoughtfully and continued, "there are some accounts that say he was a bit mad when he invented the Stellar Manipulator. But…not to worry, Kit. I've dealt with lunatics before. In fact, I've dealt with this particular lunatic more than once."

Jack smirked. "UNIT put a whole section titled 'Lunatic Control' into your file."

"Of course they did!" the Doctor beamed. "See, Kit, I know insanity--"

"I bet you do!" Kit shot him one of her amused looks. He sighed.

"But I still don't know not to say everything that comes to mind! The point is, there's nothing for you to worry about."

Kit's gave him a nod, turning serious. "But I don't understand why you have to access the Matrix. Don't they teach you about Stellar Manipulators in Time Lord school or whatever it is you do?"

"I'm a little lost on that one, too, Doctor," Jack interjected. "Time Agency recruits all learn about building time engines and timeline manipulation as part of basic training."

"Jack, it's like the difference between building with a child's blocks and building a skyscraper," the Doctor replied. "Anyone can build a toy tower, but skyscrapers require specialized knowledge that most people don't have. And Kit, I did learn how to _use_ a Stellar Manipulator at the Academy…Time Lord school," he clarified for her with a wink, "but building one was not in the curriculum. That information was only kept in the Matrix and released on a need-to-know basis, and I never needed to know. Until now."

They arrived back at their docking bay. The Doctor raised an eyebrow in surprise at the boxes, bags and baskets piled onto a mag-lev transport pallet outside the TARDIS. His companions hadn't wasted their time aboard the _Free Enterprise_. "Were you two planning a party? There's enough food here to feed an army."

"The cupboard was more than a bit bare, except for tea and marmalade," Kit said. "You may be able to live on that, but we can't. And who knows when we'll be able to stock up again?"

"Give a woman unlimited credit and free delivery service and you know you're in trouble," Jack said.

"Hey! Who was the one going hog wild in that clothing store?" Kit countered.

Jack smiled slyly. "A man needs clothes, Angel. Unless you'd rather I just…do without?" He winked at her, then grabbed the handle of the pallet to pull it through the TARDIS doors, leaving Kit gaping behind him.

"I walked right into that one, didn't I?" she said, rolling her eyes before following him in.

The Doctor shook his head as he entered the TARDIS, muttering under his breath, "So much for the subtle approach."

While Kit and Jack stored the provisions, the Doctor lay the metal case on the captain's chair. He opened it again and considered the circlet within, then turned and looked at the compression drive still hooked into the console.

_You now have what you need to rebuild what was lost._

The Eye of Harmony. The power source of the Time Lords.

_Rebuild the Time Lords in your own image. I cannot think of a better._

"Romana, I hope I can live up to the trust you've given me," he said softly. He lifted the circlet from the case, closed his eyes and settled it on his head.

His eyes flew open and he gasped in surprise as he inhaled a familiar scent. He was on a road lined with trees blooming golden.

Springtime on Gallifrey. His favorite season, full of hope and promise. He felt the sting of tears.

Just a mental projection, of course, but it was unexpected. Accessing the Matrix had never been like this before. But then, it had been a long time, and Gallifreyan computer engineers had obviously been tinkering before the Time War.

He felt a nudge at the back of his mind; a reminder that despite appearances he was still in the TARDIS. And he was on an errand. But at least he could enjoy himself in the process. He blinked back the tears, shoved his hands in his pockets and started walking, breathing in the fragrant air.

He reached a bridge crossing a wide stream, and stopped to lean on the railing, wondering just how this walk in the park was going to lead him to the knowledge he needed. He watched a school of silvery fish approach the bridge, some of them leaping out of the water.

"The Kathalin are running again," said a voice beside him. He glanced over to see another man leaning against the rail.

His portrait in the Panopticon made him look heroic, iconic. Even the photographic and holographic images that survived made him look larger than life.

This…memory…was not larger than life. Nor did he look particularly heroic, with sandy blond hair and a broad, affable face. _Aren't you a little short to be a legend?_ popped into the Doctor's head. For once, he managed not to say what he was thinking. "We used to go fishing for them when I was a boy. We caught them by the bucketful."

"My mother used to make the most wonderful broiled Kathalin. She'd always serve it with wilted greens on the side. I didn't like the greens, so I'd eat all my Kathalin and claim I was too full for anything else," the image of Omega grinned.

The Doctor smiled himself. "I used to slip mine in my pocket and throw it away later."

A shared chuckle, then Omega turned to face the Doctor. "You didn't access the Matrix or my memory engram to talk about old family recipes and boyhood misdeeds."

Omega's face might have been broad and affable, but his eyes were penetrating and surprisingly aware for a recording. "You understand what you are?" the Doctor asked.

Omega nodded. "An interactive memory engram, recorded right before the first field use of the Stellar Manipulator. Recorded before, just in case I don't survive to do it after. You're looking for information about the device, I suppose?"

"Yes."

"Then I guess I didn't survive. Hopefully you'll learn from my mistakes." The other man reached out a hand and pressed it to the Doctor's temple. The forwardness of the move surprised the Doctor; simply invading another's mind was considered uncouth. Surprise was replaced by wonder as a rush of images and information raced through his consciousness. He closed his eyes to try to process it.

"The information will be available in your long-term memory," Omega said. "And no need to worry about this breach of mental etiquette. This is a one-way connection. I am a memory; I cannot read the memories of others. And when you leave the Matrix, I will reset to my original recording. I won't remember any of this. Which is just as well," he finished as he withdrew.

There was an unexpected note of wistfulness there. Of loneliness. This engram was not only interactive, but…emotive? The Doctor opened his eyes to look at Omega again.

Not an icon. Not a hero. Not even a madman.

Not yet.

This was the memory of a man about to attempt the audacious. And that affable face was now melancholy.

"For what it's worth," the Doctor said softly, "you became a legend to our people."

Omega smiled. "It's kind of you to say so, even though I will not remember it. I hope you succeed. And..remember me."

The Doctor felt the familiar nudge of the TARDIS in his thoughts. He closed his eyes, and opened them again to find himself back in the console room. He lifted the circlet off and put it back into the metal case. Then he leaned against the console, stroking it absently in thought.

"Doctor?" Kit had returned to the console room. "You ready to try this thing?"

"Already done," he said, turning to her and closing the case. He tapped his temple. "Everything I need is right here.

Her eyes widened in surprise. "Already done? Any problems? Are you all right?"

"Yes, no, and I'm always all right," he answered. "Where's Jack? Don't tell me you locked him in the stasis chamber with the perishables!"

She laughed. "I thought about it! He went to put his stuff away, and that's gonna take a while. In the meantime, I've got something for you." She held up a small box, beautifully wrapped.

"What's this?" he asked, taking the box with a small, surprised smile. She shrugged a little.

"Something I saw and thought you'd like," she told him as he unwrapped the package and opened the box to reveal a glowing transparent globe. "It's a memory sphere. It stores visual images of your memories. You just touch it and think of the memory you want to store."

He touched one long finger to the globe. Colors began to swirl inside it, coalescing into an image of Rose, smiling at him with her tongue poking between her teeth. He caught his breath for a moment, staring at the vision, remembering that particular day when she'd given him that particular smile and that oh-so-knowing look. The familiar ache started in his hearts again.

A light touch on his arm brought him out of his reverie. Kit was looking at him in concern. "Are you all right?"

"I'm always all right," he told her again. "This is incredibly thoughtful, Kit. Did you get one for yourself, too, for memories of your parents?"

She shook her head. "The merchant said it won't work for me. I have to keep my memories up here," she said, tapping her own temple. She returned to explaining the sphere. "You can store hundreds of memories in this, and then it will rotate them continuously for you. Or you can touch it to recall one particular image."

He smiled, closing the box and wrapping his arms around her for a hug. "Thank you, Kit. You didn't have to do this, you know."

"You didn't have to take me with you," she replied, hugging him back. "Just wanted to say thanks for everything."

They turned at the sound of a throat being cleared behind them. Jack was standing on the other side of the console room, leaning on the handle of the mag-lev pallet, eyebrow raised. "Am I interrupting something?"

"Jack, just in time for the fun!" the Doctor grinned at him.

Jack approached them with one of his slow, sexy smiles. "Looks like you two started it without me!"

"Out of the gutter, Captain!" Kit scolded as she stepped away from the Doctor.

"The gutter, Angel? Not exactly what I had in mind…"

"Jack," the Doctor interrupted. "21st century idiom?" He shook his head, and Jack's face fell.

"Breaking my heart on a daily basis," he muttered. "So what fun did you have in mind, Doctor?"

"More shopping!" the Doctor said brightly. "We should be able to find everything we need for the Stellar Manipulator here on the _Free Enterprise_. I just hope you two left us enough credit."

Kit looked at him curiously. "I thought we had unlimited credit?"

"Kit, even an American Express black card has a credit limit! Just a very high one," the Doctor told her. "Go check the balance on the cashpoint out in the docking bay. I'll be along in a moment."

As his companions left, he opened the memory sphere box again. For a moment he watched the image of Rose. Then he touched the sphere, making the image swirl.

Now a broad, affable face with sandy blond hair appeared in the globe. The Doctor considered the image for a long moment before closing the box and putting it into his pocket.

"I will remember."


	24. Chapter 24 Working Like Clockwork

A gold star to Aibhinn for her outstanding beta work on this chapter! It looks a lot better as a result.

And in case you weren't aware of it, regretfully, I don't own Doctor Who. But...I'll take one TARDIS, one Ten and one Captain Jack.

To go, please.

**

* * *

**

**Chapter 24 – Working Like Clockwork**

"All right, Jack, let's run it again."

Jack put his hand over a button on the console, then stretched across to reach a lever. "Ready, Doctor!" he called.

"On my mark…three, two, one..mark."

He pressed and pulled simultaneously, then watched the monitor. After a minute, he sank into his chair and sighed. "Well, we made a little more progress," he said. "We still get sucked into the antimatter universe, but we only break up into three hundred pieces instead of three million." He began pushing buttons and pulling levers to reset the systems.

They'd been at it for hours since finishing the assembly of the Stellar Manipulator; Jack repeatedly running computer simulations as the Doctor made adjustments below the console room. So far, each simulation ended in various degrees of destruction.

The Doctor's head popped up from under the floor grid. He was beaming. "Only three hundred this time? Fantastic! Perhaps if I reverse the polarity of the neutron flow for the next run—"

"You tried that already, Doctor," Jack interrupted, shifting uncomfortably on his chair. It was definitely not designed for long-term use. At least not by a human.

The Doctor didn't seem to notice Jack's discomfort. "I tried it on the extrapolator. But not on the TARDIS's power transducers." He disappeared below the grate again.

"Even if you do figure out how to keep us in one piece, we're still getting sucked into the antimatter universe!" Jack called after him.

The response, "One problem at a time, Jack!" floated up to him, followed by some loud banging. Jack shook his head wearily, unable to keep from grinning. The Doctor had told Margaret the truth all that time ago. He would make a bad God, with no days off.

"Still at it?" Kit walked into the console room carrying two mugs. She handed one to Jack and put the other on the console. "Decaf. You need to take a break."

Jack chuckled, rubbing his face with a hand. "You should have put _him_ on the decaf hours ago," he said, and took a sip.

"I did!" Kit exclaimed. "He told me once that coffee makes him hyper. If we could tap into that, we could solve the energy crisis!"

"They did that in 2106," Jack said. "Right now, I just need to solve my personal energy crisis."

The banging stopped. "Jack, one more time!"

Jack exchanged a look with Kit. "You push this button and I'll handle the lever when he gives the count." He moved over to the lever, and nodded when she put her hand over the correct button. "All right, Doctor!"

"Three, two, one, mark!"

The button was pushed and the lever pulled. She sat next to him to look at the monitor with him.

"Explain what I'm seeing?" she asked. "Hopefully in as little techno-geek-ese as possible?"

Jack smirked. "I'll try. As the Doctor makes adjustments, the TARDIS projects the effects of each change. When I push the button, she simulates powering up the Stellar Manipulator, and sends the results here." He pointed to a bar graph on the monitor. "That's the energy reading on the Stellar Manipulator. It needs to stay in the green. This," he pointed at another graphic below it, showing a tiny blue dot hovering near a large black circle, "is our position relative to the black hole the Manipulator creates. We need to maintain that position. And this," pointing last to an image of the TARDIS, "shows our structural integrity."

"Which we need to keep," Kit observed. "I think I actually understood all that." She watched the displays for a moment, then asked, "Um, is it supposed to do that?"

The image of the TARDIS split right down the middle. The energy graph spiked red, and the tiny blue dot in the position graphic was absorbed by the black circle. Jack let out a groan of disappointment.

"That doesn't sound good," the Doctor said. He emerged from under the floor grate. "What happened?"

"This time, we only split in half and got sucked in."

"More progress!" the Doctor exclaimed giddily. Jack held up a hand.

"But the Manipulator overloaded, too. So, this time we were sliced and toasted before getting served up to the antimatter universe." His stomach growled in counterpoint, reminding him that he hadn't eaten in nearly half a day.

"When Jack's talking in food metaphors, it's definitely time for a break," Kit said. "Doctor, didn't you notice he's about to keel over?"

The Doctor looked sheepish. "I've been down below most of the time. Jack, you should have said something."

"Didn't want to hear any comments about stupid apes and their lack of stamina," Jack replied with a yawn.

"That was my last life, Jack," the Doctor said. "I may be rude now, but I'm trying not to be obnoxious. At least, not to my friends."

"Come on, Captain. Food and then bed," Kit said, sliding off the seat.

"Angel, if I wasn't so exhausted I'd be a very, very happy man right now," Jack said, draping an arm about her shoulders for support as he slid off the seat himself.

"All right, let's get you settled so you can dream on," Kit chuckled. "Doctor, what about you?"

"Get him sorted. I want to check some more possibilities."

She gave him a stern look. "You'll need a break soon, too. I brought you coffee. It's there on the console."

"Thank you, Kit," the Doctor said, picking up the mug and taking a sip. He made a face. "Decaf again?" he muttered.

Jack and Kit just laughed as they left the room.

* * *

Some time later, the coffee gone and the simulation records thoroughly analyzed, the Doctor was making more adjustments down below when he heard Kit calling. "Coming right up," he called back, and bounded up the steps. "Jack all settled?"

She grinned. "Snoring. Though he'll deny it in the morning. How's it going?"

He went to the console position where Jack had kept his long vigil. "I need to run another simulation," he said, pushing the button and pulling the lever. He watched the results and shook his head with a sigh.

"Still not working?" she asked, moving to look at the monitor. "Oh. That does look bad."

He glanced over at her. "Jack explained this to you?"

"A little. 'Stellar Manipulators for Dummies,'" she answered wryly.

He laughed softly. "You are not a dummy, Kit," he said. "You're right, this isn't good. We can generate enough power to create the Eye of Harmony. But that much power will either rip us apart…"

"…or cook us," she finished. "It's like lighting a candle with a flamethrower instead of a match."

"Not a bad analogy, Kit," the Doctor mused. "We're essentially burning a hole through the universe, and that's a delicate operation." He stopped for a moment and furrowed his brow. "A hole through the universe….Kit! That's it!"

She looked at him with raised eyebrows and a slight smile. "I can almost see the lightbulb going off over your head! What is it?"

He dashed around to the other side of the console and began working controls. "Do you understand how scientific progress has been made in your world? Each new generation of scientists building on what someone else had already done? That's what we needed to do! Instead, Jack and I have been trying to re-invent the wheel for the past few hours!"

"Are you telling me there's someone somewhere who knows how to do this?" she asked.

"More like someone some_when_," he replied. "Knowing the period, at least some of the natives would have been curious enough to keep them around and try to see what made them tick. Literally. I just have to make sure we get the timing right so I don't cross my own timeline."

"Keep them around?" Kit asked. "Who's 'them?'"

The Doctor _tsked_ at her. "'Who are they,' Kit. Really, for a journalist you're terribly imprecise with your language."

She huffed at him. "I notice you're not answering the question!"

He grinned. "Jack will have a field day with this. It's some advanced technology that I left behind in a comparatively primitive culture. I didn't mean to, but I didn't have much choice."

"I bet you never picked up your toys as a kid, either," Kit smirked.

He chuckled. "I refuse to answer on the grounds that it may incriminate me."

Jack Harkness had found heaven, and it was right there in his arms. She was as warm and soft and pliant as he'd thought she'd be, and she was calling his name softly.

"Jack…"

He hummed in pleasure and held her a little tighter. She called a little more loudly.

"Jack!" Now her voice was tinged with mirth. "Jack! You're drooling!"

"Hmmmf?" Jack opened his eyes to find himself laying on his stomach, passionately embracing his pillow. His slightly damp pillow. He wiped his mouth and peered up at Kit, who was grinning at him.

"Good morning, Captain. That must have been some dream. I thought I was going to need a bucket of cold water to wake you," she said, humor dancing in her eyes.

_Cold water might be a good idea right now_, Jack thought as he became aware that certain parts of his body were more awake than his brain at the moment. He rolled onto his side, carefully keeping his blanket in place. "It was, Angel. Wanna hear about it?"

She frowned. "Knowing your stories, it involves either a bar brawl, something green and scaly or you getting naked. More likely all three." She thought for a moment, then shook her head. "Nah. I'll pass this time."

"Now, Angel. I don't drool over bar brawls. And remember, green and scaly is the Doctor's thing—"

"I'll tell him you said that," she interrupted with a smile. "And speaking of the Doctor, he'll come looking for us soon, so get moving. He says we need to go to the wardrobe before we arrive, although he won't play dress-up himself."

"He never does. He's not one to blend in." Jack sat up, fully awake now. "Arrive where? Did he figure out the power problem?"

"No, but he figured out who _could_ figure it out, and we're going to see them. So hop to it, Captain! You have time for a quick shower." She started out the door, then turned back. "Oh, and there's plenty of cold water on tap." She gave him a wink and left.

Jack sighed. "Breaking my heart daily and trampling on the pieces," he muttered, then got out of bed.

After his shower—cold, but not too cold; masochism wasn't his thing—he headed to the wardrobe room. He found a blue suit hanging at the front of the rack, a yellow Post-It with his name stuck to it. Earth origin, maybe 1800? He pulled off his robe and began to dress.

"Jack?" Kit called from another part of the wardrobe. "You decent?"

He finished buttoning up his shirt. "I think I'm a pretty decent guy."

"Very funny!" Her voice was closer now. "Are you dressed?"

"Oh, _that_ kind of decent. Yeah."

"Good. I need some help." She appeared wearing a long blue and white striped gown, looking rather frustrated. "How did eighteenth-century women ever get dressed on their own? I can't do these buttons up the back. Would you please?"

She turned, presenting him with a view of creamy skin that threatened to undo the effects of his shower. Telling himself to stay cool, he began fastening the buttons. "So, you didn't tell me before. Eighteenth century where?"

"France," she answered. "The Doctor says about 1760."

"Hmm." Jack finished the last few buttons. "There you go, all done."

She turned to him with a smile. "Thanks. And you know, you are a pretty decent guy."

"Was that a compliment, Angel?" he asked in a low voice, standing very close to her. She looked up at him, still smiling, with an eyebrow raised.

"How long does it take for you two to get dressed?" The Doctor's voice rang through the wardrobe room. He was standing at the entry, arms crossed, impatiently drumming the fingers of his right hand.

Jack sighed as Kit stepped back and walked toward the Doctor, who let her leave the room first. Jack followed, glaring at the other man, who responded with an innocent look.

"So, who in 1760 France is going to know anything about a Stellar Manipulator?" Jack asked as they made their way through the corridors. "Aren't steam engines the cutting edge for this period?"

"For humans, yes," the Doctor answered as they reached the console room. "We're not looking for a human."

Jack glanced over at him. "What are we looking for?"

"Androids."

Jack stopped short, staring as the Doctor pushed the outer door open. "And just how do you know there are androids in 1760 France, Doctor?" he inquired.

The Doctor stepped out and held the door for his companions. "I'm sure you've already guessed, Captain. I left them here."

"Messy, isn't he?" Kit asked with a smile.

They were in a sunlit forest. The Doctor led the way. Jack followed, shaking his head. "More advanced materials left behind in a primitive culture. You know what happens to a Time Agent who does stuff like that?"

"Actually, I do," the Doctor answered. "The Time Lords weren't much different. But I didn't have much choice about leaving the androids that time. I didn't have the TARDIS to take them away." As they walked, he quickly told the story of the mysterious ship he had found with Rose and Mickey, and about its deadly repair team. "I left them in Enlightenment France, when you could find tinkerers and inventors everywhere. I knew someone would have saved those androids. You humans don't really throw anything away. You're such a race of packrats."

"Says the man with everything but the kitchen sink in his pockets!" Kit laughed as they emerged from the trees and came to a road.

The Doctor ignored her comment and pointed toward a chateau at the end of the road. "That's where we'll find our androids," he said. "The country home of watchmaker and inventor Pierre Jaquet-Droz."

They started down the road. "And how are you so sure this is the place?" Kit asked.

"Time Lord, Kit," the Doctor answered smugly. "Remember? All that is, all that was, all that could be?"

"Plus a scan for alien tech while we were getting changed," Jack interjected with a grin. "I did notice the monitor on the way out."

Kit giggled. "Your cover is blown, Doctor. You're not nearly as impressive as you'd like us to believe."

"I _am_ impressive!" the Doctor protested as they reached the building. "And I'll show you! I did my research while you two were busy flirting— "

"Excuse me?" Kit spluttered.

Jack grinned while she glared daggers at the Doctor, who ignored it and went on, "—and I happen to know that Monsieur Jaquet-Droz is off in Paris today, so we're going to have to let ourselves in." They walked up to the front door, and he pulled out his sonic screwdriver. "Prepare to be impressed." He waved the screwdriver over the lock.

Nothing happened.

"Is this supposed to be the impressive part?" Jack asked with an innocent expression.

The Doctor held the screwdriver up and frowned. "The setting's right. Is it…nah, couldn't be!" He squatted down to take another look. "It is! He's got a deadlock seal on this door!" He stood up again. "Now I know he's got an android; that technology's way beyond this period." He looked up and down at the front of the chateau. "We'll have to find another way in. Come on!"

Quickly, he led them around the building, searching the walls up and down. On the eastern side, he stopped. "There! That will do!"

He pointed to an open second-story window. A vine-covered trellis ran from the ground up next to the window. "You two stay here, and I'll let you in. Keep an eye on the road, and if anyone comes along…stall them."

"I thought you said the owner was away today?" Jack asked.

The Doctor tugged on the trellis to test its strength. "He is! Well, he's supposed to be. You two stay put!" He began climbing up the trellis.

"You're very reassuring, Doctor!" Kit called after him. He made it up to the window and reached over to climb in. Once safely through the window, he gave them a wave and disappeared inside.

Jack looked at Kit. "So now we wait. Hopefully he won't get distracted on the way to let us in."

She chuckled, then took a look around. They were standing on a well-manicured lawn, a neatly-trimmed hedge just across the way. "Is that a hedge maze?" She walked over and found a gap, disappearing into it. "It is!"

"Don't get lost in there, Angel."

"What, and deprive you of the chance to rescue me?" she called back.

He grinned. "Didn't think you were the damsel in distress type."

He could hear the smile in her reply. "I'm not. But I know you have your fantasies."

"You don't know the half of it, Angel!" he chuckled.

"Jack! Come look at this!" She sounded excited. "Turn right when you come into the maze, and then the first left turning."

A quick glance at the window and then the road, and he went into the maze, following her directions. He found her examining at an odd contraption. She looked up at him and said, "I think I found one of the Doctor's androids."

"The parts of more than one, I think." Its clear head showed its internal clockwork mechanism, exactly as the Doctor had described. But that was the end of its semblance to humanity. The original android body had been rebuilt, with a second pair of arms attached below the original ones. The arms hung at the machine's sides, each one ending in a set of very sharp clippers.

"A mechanical 'Edward Scissorhands,'" Kit said. Jack gave her an odd look, and she said, "Movie character. Great at topiaries. I guess this guy keeps the hedge maze in order."

Jack squatted down to look at the machine's feet; wheeled, with their own sets of clippers. "Mows the lawn, too," he observed. He touched one of the blades, and the android head moved. The arms raised from their resting position.

"Jack, what'd you do?" Kit asked nervously. The clippers were slowly starting to open and close.

Jack stood up and backed away, pulling her back with him. "Nothing! You saw, I just touched it!"

The machine was starting to move toward them, the clippers now moving faster. "I think it thinks we're bushes, Jack!" Kit exclaimed. "And it's standing between us and the way out!"

"Not for long!" Jack said, reaching under his coat to where his sonic blaster—

—wasn't. A chill ran down his spine as he remembered; he'd let himself get so distracted by Kit in the wardrobe room that he left the blaster there.

"Jack?" The machine was moving faster now, blades clicking with deadly speed.

"Left my blaster in my other pants!" He grabbed her hand. "Come on, Angel! Move!"

He pulled her behind him through the narrow hedgerows. Her long skirt caught on a spiny branch, pulling her back for a moment until she tugged herself free. The machine was on their heels. He yanked her arm as she glanced back at the flashing blades. "Don't look back!" he barked. They turned a corner and found themselves facing a dead end of thorny hedge.

"Wrong way!" Kit cried.

Jack pulled her into his arms and turned them so his back faced the oncoming machine, trying to protect her for as long as he could. "Don't look, Angel," he whispered to her as she clutched at him. He kissed the top of her head and closed his eyes, waiting for the blades to strike.

The blow never came. "You know, most people notice when they've been rescued," came a dry voice above them. "You two are so sweet."

They looked up and noticed that the tall hedge backed against a wall of the chateau. The Doctor leaned out of an open window, holding his sonic screwdriver. Behind them, the clipper machine was smoking.

They broke apart a little awkwardly. "Throwing my words back at me, Doctor?" Jack called up.

The Doctor grinned. "The proper response would be, 'Thank you for saving our lives, Doctor.' One of these days, _someone_ is going to listen when I say 'Don't wander off.' I see you found one of the androids. I found another whole one and a lot of spare parts inside. Jack, I'll need your help to get it all out and back to the TARDIS. Exit the maze by taking a left turn, then two rights and another left. Meet me at the kitchen door around back. And bring Mr. Mower with you; I'm not leaving this advanced technology behind again."

Jack pushed "Mr. Mower" ahead of them on the way out of the maze. Kit looked over at him and said, "I know why you forgot your blaster."

He glanced her way. "You do?"

"Yep. And I just have one thing to say, Captain." She swung to face him, and he was taken aback by her flashing eyes. "You nearly got us killed. Next time, remember the _blaster_and leave your _libido_ in your other pants!" She stalked out of the maze, leaving him staring after her.

* * *

Pierre Jaquet-Droz and his son returned from their trip to Paris to find the locks on their doors completely removed, and their automatons missing. Also missing were the plans Pierre had drawn after studying the automatons.

But that was all that was missing. An inspection of the house showed their valuables were still in place. Gold and jewels used in his watch-making were still in his workroom. And there was something new as well: a leather folio Pierre had never seen before. Looking inside, he found a collection of drawings. _Le Dessinateur, L'Ecrivain, La Musicienne._ He studied them in growing excitement. The drawings were just a beginning, but he could see the potential.

This would put him in the history books.

**

* * *

A/N: I've played a little loosely with his history, but Pierre Jaquet-Droz was a real watchmaker who lived in the 1700s and created actual working androids. They're considered the first computers. They are still in working order and can be seen in Neuchatel, Switzerland. The Jaquet-Droz watch company is still in business producing luxury watches.**


	25. Chapter 25 The Seeker

A/N: My Lord, it took a long time to get this chapter done! Work problems are not conducive to creativity. But I think things will move right along now.

Many thanks to Aibhinn for beta services! And for reassuring me that I haven't completely lost my mind!

And just for the record: I don't own Doctor Who. But I do own a shiny new copy of Doctor Who Magazine with the lovely David Tennant on the cover!**

* * *

Chapter 25 – The Seeker **

"_Firefighters say the smoke was not poisonous. They traced it to a smoke bomb planted in the ventilation system. Police say the men in this security video may be connected to the incident."_

"Look, Mickey, we're famous!" Jake grinned at the news report showing himself and Mickey in their hospital disguises.

Mickey scowled at the television. "We're not famous, we're fugitives."

They were holed up in an old Preacher's hideout, trying to decide on their next move. Mickey had a road map spread out on the table in front of him, poring over it with Jake while Rose watched the news.

Theyd heard the story of Madhukar's arrival in this world in a rambling narrative during their drive away from the hospital. He called himself a Seeker, and said he had been traveling between the worlds when suddenly his craft fell through smoke and fire, crashing into Cardiff Bay. The impact knocked him out briefly. Seawater woke him as it flooded his ship, and he escaped just in time.

Then Torchwood came, bringing fear and pain. He'd been certain he would die until he saw Rose, glowing with the energy of other worlds. Energy he said he could feel whenever she was nearby. That was how he'd known when they came to rescue him.

They'd given him food, which he'd wolfed down, and a change of clothing that hung loosely on his thin frame. Now he lay on the sofa, his eyes closed in concentration as if he was trying to hear something.

Mickey stood up and began pacing. "We can't stay here," he said. "The longer we wait, the better chance Onyx has of finding us. We need to look for this door Madhukar's been talking about. That is, if he's got any idea of where to find it."

Madhukar opened his eyes and sat up. "No, no, no ideas of where it might be. But I do have an idea of how to find it. Rose, give me your hand."

She looked at the long hand he reached out to her. Elegantly tapered fingers waggled to her in a way that was too familiar, and she hesitated.

"There's nothing to fear," he said gently. "Nothing at all. You're safe, I'm safe, this is safe."

Rose grasped his hand, and was startled at its warmth. So much warmer than the Doctor's hand had been. He smiled at her and closed his eyes again.

"I've been listening, searching, trying to find the door, but I can't hear Athakara's Song," he said. "I've only heard…you'd call it static…since I crashed here. Crackles, rustles, whispers of noise. But Rose, when I touch you, the static starts to clear. You've traveled between the worlds."

"We've traveled between the worlds too," Mickey said. "Jake and me both. So why does it have to be Rose?"

"You have? But…you're not the same," Madhukar said, opening his eyes to look at Mickey. "You both touched me when you rescued me, but the static didn't clear then." He closed his eyes again. "Rose is different. Something more. Much more. I can see it in her eyes and hear it in her voice. She's heard the Song."

Her jaw dropped as she remembered. _It's like... there was this singing..._

_That's right! I sang a song and the Daleks ran away._

"What's this song you're talking about?" Jake asked.

"Athakara's Song…_is_," Madhukar replied with a small shrug. He thought for a moment, as if searching for wards, then went on, "It is creation and growth. It is decay and death. The Song has guided me, until I reached this world." He paused, concentrating, then opened his eyes and shook his head, releasing Rose's hand. "The static is less, but I still cannot hear even an echo of it." He shuddered a little. "I've traveled to many places in my Seeking. But never, never, never…I've never been to a place where the Song is silent. It's frightening."

Rose looked at him with wide eyes, shaken by his words. "Mickey," she said slowly, "do you remember what the Doctor called this world the first time we came here? The silent realm, he said."

"I thought he was just being dramatic," Mickey replied. "Going on about the lost dimension."

Rose frowned, thinking. "No. It scared him, too. Falling into this universe, thinking the TARDIS was dead…I don't think I'd ever heard him sound so lost before."

Even now, it pained Rose to remember how wounded he'd seemed. It pained her even more to recall her own selfishness. After seeing Pete's image on a Vitex poster, she hadn't given another thought to the TARDIS.

The Doctor had never reproached her for that. It made her feel guiltier.

"We need to make a plan," Mickey said, shaking her from her thoughts. "This door between the worlds…it sounds like a rift, yeah? Rose, what do you think about Cardiff?"

She shook her head. "We've checked Cardiff again and again, Mickey. There's no rift there in this world. The Time War didn't happen here, so the Gelth never tried to invade."

"Yeah, but we checked before he came through," Jake argued, pointing at Madhukar. "Maybe things have changed now."

"There's no door there. No exit. Not even a window," Madhukar said, standing and stretching. "If I'd have been able to hear even a slight echo of the Song, I'd have escaped before your Torchwood arrived."

"With your ship at the bottom of the bay?" Mickey asked incredulously.

Madhukar raised an eyebrow at him. "How do you travel if you have no vehicle?" he asked.

Jake answered, "We walk."

"Yes, yes, yes!" Madhukar nodded. "Traveling between cities or between worlds is much the same for us. We can walk or ride. When we walk, the trip just takes longer. And you have to carry everything you own. Not that it's a problem for Seekers. We don't own much, except for what's here." He tapped his forehead.

"What is a Seeker?" Rose asked. "What are you looking for?"

"Knowledge. Understanding. Wisdom," he replied. "We're learners, and then teachers to our people. Most of us Seek greater knowledge of the Song, and we walk between worlds to find it. But for me…" he paused a moment, as if looking for the words. Then he went on, "I'm not like other Seekers. I frighten most of them, because I do not walk only between worlds. I walk between ages."

The three humans stared at him. Madhukar's face became sad. "I frighten you as well. And you should be frightened. The skill to walk into the past and future is a terrible one without the wisdom to use it. I Seek that wisdom."

Rose stood and took his hand again to reassure him. "We're not frightened. We're…amazed. Being able to literally walk from one world to another—we can't travel like that. We need spaceships or Jump Disks. But that's not the only thing. You're not the first person we've known who can—how'd you say it? Walk into the past and the future."

"He's a time traveler, just like the Doctor?" Mickey asked.

Rose shook her head. "Different. The Doctor needed the TARDIS. Just like we need spaceships. But you, Madhukar, you can do it all on your own."

"As long as there's a door for me to open," Madhukar clarified.

"Which we still need to find," Jake added. "Any other ideas besides holding hands with Rose?"

Madhukar released Rose's hand and shook his head. "I don't know. To walk between worlds, we need to hear the Song."

"Wait a minute." Mickey's brow was furrowed in concentration. "You've been trying to hear something, but all you get is static, right?"

"Yes," Madhukar nodded in agreement.

Mickey had begun pacing again. "Touching Rose clears the static a bit because she's traveled between the worlds and heard this song of yours, right?"

"Yes."

"What are you thinking, Mickey?" Rose asked.

"He's…he's like a radio, Rose," Mickey answered. "This…song; it's like a signal. And he's the receiver. He was using you like an antenna to try to get the signal. But he needs a better one."

"A better antenna?"

Mickey stopped in front of her. "Right! And I think you've got just what he needs hanging around your neck."

Her eyes widened as she drew out the chain that she always wore. Hanging from it was her TARDIS key. She took it off and held it up. "Madhukar, this comes from a ship that travels between the worlds and the ages," she said, offering the precious key to the Seeker.

He took it reverently, and a wide smile broke over his face. "Between the worlds, between the ages, and more!" he breathed. "It's been touched by the Ekala! I can just hear them singing the Song!" He closed his eyes, swaying a little. "Yes, yes! Now we can find the door!"

Mickey was grinning smugly. "See, Rose? Not such an idiot, am I?"

Rose hugged him. "I never said you were. Still itching to prove the Doctor wrong?"

"Scratching that itch now. Can't wait to see his face when we do prove him wrong."

Rose stepped back and smiled up at him. "Neither can I."


	26. Chapter 26 The Hand of Omega

A/N: This story was started well before the premiere of "Torchwood," and so doesn't follow that particular canon. I know enough from Classic Who and spinoff media to be dangerous.

Thanks, as always, to Aibhinn for beta services!

* * *

**Chapter 26 – The Hand of Omega**

"Get that last connector, Jack…and…there! All the sharp, spiky and otherwise dangerous bits are gone!" the Doctor announced.

The sole intact clockwork android stood in the console room. Well, almost intact. He and Jack had just finished removing its blades, needles and teleportation devices, rendering it harmless. Or so they hoped.

"If it's all the same to you, I'm keeping this handy," Kit said. She was sitting on one of the chairs with her baseball bat slung across her shoulders.

"Don't trust our work, Angel?" Jack asked, tossing the last of the sharp, spiky bits into a bin along with the rest of the spare parts.

"Well, let's look at the track record," she answered. She used the bat as a pointer, aiming it at the Doctor. "He's nearly gotten me buried in an avalanche, sacrificed by a voodoo cult and gambled off into slavery."

"I got you out of every one of those situations!" the Doctor protested.

"You also got me into them!" she replied with a laugh. Jack snorted at that, but she wasn't letting him off the hook. She swung her bat around his way. "And _you_ nearly got me cut into julienne strips. Not exactly knights in shining armor, either of you."

"But you're not exactly a damsel in distress yourself," Jack countered with a grin.

"Not when I've got this around," she answered, patting the bat and resting it across her lap. "So now what, Doctor?"

The Doctor walked around the android, looking it up and down. "I'll need to wind this up." He laughed softly. "Last time I saw it, I said I wouldn't. Funny how fate makes a liar out of me."

"Never say never," Kit offered.

He looked her way sharply. "True. Well, then! How do you Americans put it? Let's get this show on the road!"

The android didn't truly need winding up. Rather, it had a button to depress under its right arm to restart its mechanisms. The Doctor pressed the button, then stepped back next to his companions as the clockworks slowly ground into life.

"You might want to be ready to use that," the Doctor murmured to Kit, with a jerk of his head at the bat. "Just in case."

She held the bat at the ready as Jack glanced over at the Doctor. He pulled out his sonic blaster. "Just in case," he said.

The clockworks were now at full speed. "Repair Droid One awaiting purpose," declared a tinny-sounding male voice.

"Purpose," the Doctor murmured. "I took it away from you before, and now you want me to give it to you again. Well, I can do that." He motioned to his companions to lower their weapons, and walked closer to the android. "I have something for you to repair. A device to open windows through space and time, just as you did on your space ship. I need you to fix it."

"I must examine the device," the android responded. The Doctor led it over to the Stellar Manipulator.

"Got to love repair droids," Jack said, tucking his blaster away. "No chit-chat, just down to business."

"And they won't stick you with an outrageous bill later, right?" Kit asked.

The android hovered over the Manipulator, the Doctor watching it closely. A series of whirs and clicks accompanied the ticking of the android's clockwork heart, making a strange music.

Finally, the android straightened and faced the Doctor. "It is not complete."

"Not complete?" the Doctor asked. "What do you mean? We followed all of Omega's instructions to the letter."

"It is not complete. It is missing a part." The android turned toward Kit and Jack. "You are compatible."

"Oh, no, you don't!" the Doctor exclaimed, moving in front of the android. "I like my companions the way they are, thank you. Besides, you're no longer equipped for dissecting. What part is missing?"

"Bioelectromechanical control is necessary to complete the spatio-temporal hyperlink," was the response.

The Doctor's jaw dropped. "Spatio-temporal hyperlink?" he repeated incredulously. "_Spatio-temporal hyperlink?_ Did you say—" he turned to the others. "Did it just say spatio-temporal hyperlink?"

"It did," Jack confirmed.

"And what's a space-temp-whatsit?" Kit asked.

The Doctor's eyes were still wide and disbelieving as he answered. "Spatio-temporal hyperlink. I thought I'd made it up. Didn't want to say 'magic door.'" A shadow crossed his face for a moment as he thought about Rose and Mickey and how he'd almost let them down. Then he shook his head. "Never mind that. Why bioelectromechanical control?"

"It is necessary to manage the power flows," the android replied. "The part is needed to effect repairs. You are compatible as well."

"No!" the Doctor replied firmly. "I like me the way I am, too." He thought over everything he'd learned in the Matrix. "Omega's recording made no mentions at all of biolectromechanical control."

"I don't think there was any mention of getting sucked into an antimatter universe, either," Jack pointed out. "Is there anything else about the Stellar Manipulator in the Matrix? Maybe some later research?"

The Doctor shook his head. "Rassilon himself made the only other entry on the subject, giving it a new name. He called it the Hand—" He stopped and clapped a hand on his forehead. "No! No no no no no! Can't be! No!" He started pacing around the console, raking his hair back with his fingers as he thought furiously. "That was just a legend! No one ever believed it was true!" He stopped in front of the android again. "But…maybe we were wrong."

His companions stared at him. "Wrong about what, Doctor?" Jack asked.

"You started to say that Rassilon called it the Hand," Kit added. "What does that mean?"

"The Hand of Omega," the Doctor answered. He moved over to a chair and sat down heavily. "There's a Time Lord legend that says Omega cut his assistant's hand off and put it into the original Manipulator. Supposedly that was why Rassilon named the device 'the Hand of Omega.' Most of my Academy teachers said it was a story made up to frighten children. It seems they were wrong." He let out a huff of laughter. "That shouldn't surprise me. They seemed to be wrong about many things. But I just accepted it. I never even bothered to really look at the original device when I had it in my possession. Just used it without completely understanding it."

"That sounds like Torchwood," Jack observed.

The Doctor shot a dark look at him. "I think I'm better than that."

Jack put his hands up in a gesture of apology and brought him back on topic. "If the legend is true, does it mean what I think it means?"

"Putting two and two together and getting five, Jack? As in five fingers?" He held up his right hand and waggled the fingers meaningfully.

Kit looked back and forth between them. "You mean…no, you don't mean…"

"I do mean, Kit. If Repair Droid One here is going to get its job done, then I need to lend it a hand. Literally." The Doctor slid back out of the chair. "I'll be right back. Keep an eye on that droid, will you? Make sure it doesn't do anything to the TARDIS?"

He dashed out of the console room, down the corridor to the medical bay. He opened a stasis cabinet and took out the metal case he'd retrieved from Torchwood Cardiff. He took one more look at the other case from London, then closed the cabinet. _Things work out_, he'd once told Kit. _Not usually the way we expect them to._

_This_ was certainly beyond any of his expectations.

He jogged back to the console room. "All right, then, Repair Droid One…my goodness, that's a mouthful. We need to call you something else…hmmm…I know! Alonzo!" He grinned broadly. "Brilliant! I wanted a companion named Alonzo! Now I can say '_Allons-y_, Alonzo!' Perfect! Alonzo! What?"

Kit and Jack were both staring at him, dumbfounded. He sobered. "Rose would have got it," he said in a low tone. He turned back to the droid and held the metal case out to it. "I think this is what you need."

He opened the case and took out the severed hand inside. The droid whirred and clicked for a moment, and then pronounced, "It is compatible." It took the hand and turned back to the Stellar Manipulator.

The Doctor and Jack moved on either side of it to watch it work. "Whoa. He's good!" Jack said. "Look at that!"

"He's re-routed the power through my hand," the Doctor. "Look, the energy is making the fingers move."

Kit made a strangled noise behind them. They turned to see her putting a hand over her face and shaking her head. "At least you're not shouting, 'It's alive,' Doctor Frankenstein!"

The Doctor raised an eyebrow at her. "That's _Fronkenshteen_," he said mildly, and winked at her as she dissolved into giggles.

The android's voice cut through her laughter. "It is complete."

"That fast?" Jack asked in surprise as Kit fell silent.

"It is complete."

The Doctor moved to the console, and motioned for Jack to do the same. "There's one way to test that," he said, resetting switches and dials. "I've given the TARDIS the new information. Jack, you handle the lever, and I'll push the button. On my mark…three, two, one, mark!"

Button pushed, lever pulled, all three gathered around the monitor to watch the simulation results. "The black hole is being formed, and we're holding position," the Doctor said.

"Energy readings are staying in the green," Jack added.

"And we're staying in one piece!" Kit concluded. They watched the monitor for a few more moments, then looked at each other.

"That's it." The Doctor's voice was a bare whisper. It was almost too much to believe. He could rebuild what was lost. And with a new Eye of Harmony, he would be able to have what he desired.

Just as the Face of Boe had said.

"Doctor?" Kit touched his arm.

He smiled and put an arm around each of his companions, giving them both a squeeze. "'Nothing is impossible to a willing heart.' That's going to be a cornerstone for the new Time Lords," he said. "Thank you both. And you!" He released Kit and Jack and strode over to the android, planting a kiss on its glass head. "Well done, Alonzo! Now, before we do anything else, the TARDIS is going to need power."

"Back to the Cardiff Rift?" Jack asked.

The Doctor shook his head. "Too close to Torchwood, and I don't want to waste time on them now. Not when we're this close." He thought for a moment. "There is a spot in the M81 galaxy that will serve the purpose nicely. It'll take a couple of days to fuel up, but then we'll be set. And once we create the new Eye of Harmony, I'll never have to make a fuel stop again. The TARDIS will be able to draw power right from the Eye. And then," he smiled in anticipation, "then we can cross the universes."

He turned back to the console and entered some coordinates. The time rotor began to move.

_I'm coming to get you, Rose._

* * *

Late on their second day in the M81 galaxy, Jack walked into the console room to find Kit alone, sitting and writing in a notebook. "Hey, Angel," he said. "Where's the Doctor?"

She answered without looking up. "Even Time Lords need a time out once in a while," she said with one final flourish of her pen before closing the book. "Had to threaten him with the baseball bat—"

"You didn't."

"I did!" she said with a smug expression. "He was staring at that— "she pointed at the memory sphere on the console, which was rotating various images of Rose, "—and he was starting to talk to it, so I knew he'd been going for way too long. I…_convinced_ him to go to his room to rest and not come back in here for eight hours."

"Which means he'll be back in two," Jack smirked.

"Well, of course," she shrugged. "But two hours rest is better than nothing. I promised him I'd keep an eye on the energy levels and let him know if anything started blinking mauve."

He walked over to the console and looked at the monitor. "Actually, it looks like we're topped off. We can go when he gets back."

The memory sphere caught his eye; an image of Rose laughing and wading through shallow water. "I remember that day," he said. "Hydraxa Five. Unbelievable whitewater rafting. Rose was terrified at first, but then she loved it. It was a good time." He reached out and touched the sphere. "We had a lot of good times, the three of us."

The sphere's interior swirled, and an image appeared of his first night on the TARDIS, the Doctor's previous self giving him the evil eye while dancing with Rose. Jack smiled at the memory, then his attention was drawn away by a groan from Kit. He looked to see her rolling her shoulders and rubbing her neck.

She let out a huff of discomfort. "Guess they didn't believe in ergonomically correct chairs on Gallifrey."

"Here." Jack moved behind her and began massaging her stiff muscles. "So where's Alonzo?" he asked with a grin.

She chuckled. Neither of them had been able to say that name with a straight face. "In the workroom, fixing things. The place looks like a cross between 'Antiques Roadshow,' 'Tool Time' and 'Pimp My Ride.' Oooh!" She gasped a little bit, and he stopped.

"Did I hurt you?"

"Oh, no. Just hit a particularly good spot." She shifted just a little. "Carry on!"

"Yes, ma'am!" He resumed his ministrations. "So, what are you writing?"

"Journalist, remember? I'm keeping a journal. No peeking!"

He laughed softly as he kept kneading her shoulders. When she was completely relaxed under his hands, he slid them down to gently wrap his arms around her and nuzzle her neck. He'd barely gotten a whiff of a floral scent on her skin when she stiffened.

"Jack. Don't."

He let her go and stepped back, his disappointment eased a little by the gentle look she gave him as she stood and faced him. "Don't," she said again quietly.

He started to answer, but she put a finger to his lips to stop him. "Hear me out. I do care for you, Jack. It's pretty surprising considering I was ready to blast you when we first met."

Another memory to make him smile. "The Doctor's guardian angel. But…"

She shook her head. "Hear me out," she repeated, emphasizing each word carefully. She took in a breath and let it out. "Captain Jack 'I Get Around' Harkness. I know that's normal for your time, but I still need to wrap my 21st century brain around it. And there's something else to consider."

She paused to look down, then back up at him. "The Doctor. You should have seen the look on his face when he was watching that sphere. He's still in so much pain over Rose. Jack, I know what it's like to lose something, and then get your guts ripped out when you see someone else with what you lost. It _hurts_. I don't want to see him go through that, do you?"

He sighed and shook his head. "Of course not. Still his guardian angel, hmm?"

"Someone has to be. Until we get Rose back." She reached up to caress his cheek. "Thanks for understanding."

Jack smiled and hugged her then, the embrace of a good friend. He kissed the top of her head and released her. "You know, I love your confidence that we will get Rose back. Not a doubt in your mind, is there?"

She looked at him very seriously. "I can't have any doubts, Jack. Five hearts are riding on this."

* * *

The Doctor walked down the corridor back toward the console room. It was less than two hours since Kit had ordered him off to rest under the threat of her Louisville Slugger. But by his estimates, the refueling should be done and he didn't want to waste a single moment.

As he drew closer to the console room, he caught a whiff of something in the air. He stopped and sniffed. Human pheromones. He was all too familiar with Jack's, but there was something else mixed in; from Kit? That was new. He couldn't help but smile. _He finally won her over._

He didn't want to waste time, but he didn't want to interrupt anything, either. Perhaps he should check on Alonzo…

But as he started to turn away, he could just barely hear Kit saying his own name in such a sad tone. He stopped to listen, and shook his head regretfully at what he heard. She had it all wrong. He'd have a private word with her about it later.

For now, though…He straightened up and strode into the console room. "Right then, you two! If my calculations are correct…and they always are…we should be ready to go!"

He went to the console and tucked the memory sphere back into his pocket while he looked at the monitor. "Very good! Now…" he paused and gave them an expectant smile, "who's ready to make some history?"

Jack grinned back. "Making history is just another day on the TARDIS, Doctor."

"Oh, no, Jack," the Doctor replied, beginning to push buttons. "This is definitely _not_ just another day."


	27. Chapter 27 It's All Up in the Air

A/N: Many, many thanks to Aibhinn for giving me a nudge in the right direction with this chapter. It's a lot better now as a result!

Oh, and for any land sharks (i.e., lawyers) out there…I'm well aware that I don't own Doctor Who. I don't even truly own my house yet; the bank does!

**

* * *

Tracking Torchwood Arc Four **

**Chapter 27 – It's All Up in the Air**

Giving Madhukar the right "antenna" made all the difference. Rose watched him move around the room, stopping in different spots as he heard his song coming from not just one but many directions. The implications of that were alarming.

"That's an awful lot of signals coming through an awful lot of rifts. What's to keep the Cybermen from coming back through?" Mickey asked.

Rose spread her hands helplessly. "I don't know. If there are holes in the Void, we could start seeing Cybermen any minute." A chilling thought gripped her. "Or worse, Daleks."

"They haven't come through yet. Maybe they all killed each other in the Void. Or…" Jake stopped and thought for a moment before continuing. "It took them three years to break through last time. The Doctor said it was because there were so many of them. So maybe we have time."

"Those are big maybes," Mickey said darkly.

"Best we've got," Jake countered. "If they do come through, we'll handle them. We've done it before. But worrying about it now isn't going to help Rose or Madhukar. Let's deal with the problem we know we have."

"And don't go borrowing trouble?" Mickey replied with a wry smile. "You been listening to my gran?"

"She's a smart woman," Jake grinned back. "You should listen more often. Maybe she wouldn't slap you so much."

The banter helped Rose relax just a bit, and think. After a moment's reflection, she said, "It took the TARDIS key for Madhukar to detect anything. A stronger antenna to get a faint signal. Maybe the signal is so faint because the rifts are too small."

"All right, I guess that will have to do for now," Mickey conceded. "But Madhukar, you're hearing this song all over the place. We can't just go chasing around following the TARDIS key. Can you narrow it down?"

Madhukar came to a standstill next to the table, the key clutched tightly in his hand. He looked at the road map of England still spread out on the table. "Narrow it down, bring us closer…maybe so. There is something my Acarya showed me when I first learned to walk between the worlds." He held the key out over the map and closed his eyes. "In the beginning, we're taught to find the doors on maps."

Slowly he moved the key over the map. After a few moments, he touched the key down on a spot. "There." He picked the key up again, and after another moment touched another spot. "There."

"He's map dowsing!" Jake marveled. "My great-grandfather used to do that to find water, so people would know where to dig their wells."

"He's finding a lot of spots," Rose observed as Madhukar repeated the motion again and again.

Mickey quickly grabbed a pen to mark the spots with a red X. "If these are rifts, Torchwood will need to keep an eye on them."

"We'll need more people to do that," Jake said, his eyes widening as more and more red Xs were added. "Madhukar, how many?"

The Seeker paused and opened his eyes. "Many, many, so many just on the map. And I can feel even more off its borders."

Rose was looking at the map upside down. She sidled around the table to be able to read it the right way, and gave a little gasp of surprise. "Mickey! Look at what you've marked!"

Mickey moved to see the map from the right angle himself. "Blimey! No wonder he's finding so many! There are a thousand of them all over Britain!"

"A thousand what?" Jake demanded, moving so he could see the map as well.

"Stone circles and henges," Mickey answered. "Look. Stonehenge, Avebury and Rollright Stones just for starters. And there are plenty more."

"And they've all got rifts," Rose mused. "That makes sense. There are all kinds of reports about hauntings and UFOs around those sites. The Doctor said rifts were usually the reason for that sort of thing."

"A thousand possible rifts to watch?" Jake whistled. "We're going to need a _lot_ more people."

* * *

Pete Tyler was in many respects one of the most recognizable faces in the country. As the founder and front man of the Vitex company, and as one of the leaders against the Cybermen, his image was often plastered over billboards, magazines, newspapers and television screens. 

But Pete was also, in the words of the late President, an "ordinary Joe" with a rather ordinary face. Especially when he got out of the expensive suits and flashy cars. In scruffy jeans, a rumpled flannel shirt and a nondescript motorhome, he became anonymous. Just "a" Pete, not "the" Pete who'd made a fortune and helped save the world. An ordinary bloke taking his family out on a driving holiday.

It was just that the family wasn't so ordinary.

Pete, Jackie and Violet had arrived at the hideout in the motorhome the next morning. At first Jackie clutched the baby and stared at Madhukar as if she expected him to sprout fangs or claws. He won her over by first polishing off a good portion of the shepherd's pie she'd packed, and then by singing Violet to sleep while the others finished their meals.

Rose just picked at her food, feeling the beginnings of another headache coming on. Pete, Mickey and Jake pored over the map to plan a route. Madhukar dowsed the map again, and selected what he thought was the best possible spot: Avebury, the site of the largest stone circle in Britain. It was also the site of strange lights and music, and ghostly apparitions. The Doctor would call them textbook symptoms of a weak point between space and time, Rose thought.

A rift. Right in the middle of a stone circle that ran through a modern village. She put her fork down and rubbed her temples, only half-listening to the conversation.

"There are checkpoints on every major road out of London," Pete said. "But there's a bank holiday on Monday, so the roads will be jammed with weekend travelers this afternoon. The guards will be a bit more lax just to get the crowds through. We should be able to slip the net and make a campsite before curfew."

"And what if we do get stopped?" Mickey asked.

Pete stood and walked to the forward bunk. "Well, they're not looking for Rose, so she's safe enough. Got a couple of hidey-holes for you boys. Here." He pulled on a solid-looking panel next to the refrigerator, revealing it as a false front disguising a hidden compartment. "And there's another one over there under the mattress," he pointed to the bed in the back. "Two of you will have to get cozy in that one, though."

"Just don't anybody get any ideas," Mickey grumbled. "Secret compartments! Where'd you get this thing, Pete? From a bootlegger?"

Pete grinned. "Now that you mention it, yeah."

* * *

Traffic was backed up, just as Pete had expected would happen. Rose sighed and shifted uncomfortably in her seat, her headache now full-blown. Even a neck rub from Mickey wasn't helping. 

Madhukar regarded her sympathetically across the table. "Rose, your illness can only be cured by something not of this world, true?"

She nodded tiredly. "If I'd stayed with the TARDIS, this would never have happened at all."

"But then you would never have found me," Madhukar said. He held up the TARDIS key. "This is from the TARDIS, yes?"

"Yes," Rose confirmed.

"So it is not of this world."

Mickey interjected, "But she's always had that key with her and it never made her any better."

Madhukar smiled. "But you didn't have the key and me. I am not of this world either." Holding the key in one hand, he reached out to Rose with the other. "Give me your hand, and listen."

He closed his eyes and kept his hand held out to her. She glanced over at Jake and Mickey, who made an encouraging gesture. Taking a breath, she put her hand into Madhukar's, closed her eyes, and listened.

A glorious harmony filled her mind. Glorious, and familiar. She knew she had heard this music before, swirling through her mind.

_It's like…there was this singing. _

The melody soared in her mind, voices singing words she couldn't understand but could listen to for eternity. Something golden and shining hovered just at the edge of her mind's eye. She reached for it…

…and it disappeared as Madhukar gently withdrew his hand from hers. "I told you that you knew the Song," he said. "Creation, growth—and healing. How do you feel?"

Rose breathed in and then let it out again in surprise. "The headache is gone! Thank you."

He smiled and inclined his head toward her slightly.

"Could you cure her?" Mickey asked.

Madhukar shook his head. "I can only take away the pain."

Rose was mulling over the elusive memory she'd almost caught hold of. "Madhukar, that singing was beautiful. I could get lost in it forever."

"Which is why I let go of your hand," he told her. "We're not meant to get lost in the Song."

She nodded. "I understand. But—just now, I could almost _see_ something. It was gold, and..shining so bright. I know I've seen it before. It feels…almost like an answer that's at the tip of my tongue. Do you know what it was?"

He leaned back and looked at her with awed eyes. "I only hear the Song, Rose. But you…you've seen the Singers! That's something that only a very few Seekers have ever done."

"I hate to interrupt this discussion of music appreciation," Pete called from the driver's seat, "but we're only a couple of cars back from the inspectors. Better get hidden."

The three men jumped out of their seats. Jake squeezed into the kitchen compartment, while Mickey and Madhukar hid in the rear compartment. Rose checked that the false doors were all secure. Then she sat back down next to Violet's car seat, where the baby was sucking contentedly on a pacifier.

"Now, Rose," Pete said as they came up to the inspectors.

Rose looked down at her little sister. "Sorry, sweetheart." She pulled the pacifier out of Violet's mouth. As expected, the infant objected.

Loudly.

Pete rolled his window down just as Violet started crying. The soldier who came up to the window winced at the infant's piercing cries. Pete shrugged in apology. "Sorry about that. She's very demanding. Takes after her mother."

"Oi!" Jackie protested, making the soldier grin.

"I'm sorry, but we have to take a look inside," the soldier said. He signaled one of his partners to move to the side door.

"All right," Pete said. "Will it take long? We've got a ways to go."

One young soldier opened the side door and nodded at Rose. "Sorry, miss, we've got orders," he called over the baby's wailing. Rose shrugged at him as he climbed inside.

Jackie got up from her front cabin seat and moved back to take Violet out of the car seat. "Well, as long as you're stopping us, I may as well feed her," she said, beginning to unbutton her blouse. "I know, love," she cooed at the baby. "Time for num-nums." Jackie settled into a seat. "Been sucking me dry, she has."

The soldier began to turn bright red as Jackie undid more buttons and started to reach for the flap of her nursing bra. He gulped, glanced around quickly and then nearly ran out of the motorhome, telling his partner, "All clear!"

Pete gave the soldiers a quick salute as they waved him through the checkpoint. "Crying babies and nursing mothers," he chuckled. "Two quick ways to clear a room."

Jackie settled Violet in and latched her on. "Honestly, you'd think he'd never seen anyone feed a baby before!"

Rose got up to help Jake out of the kitchen compartment, while Mickey and Madhukar pushed up the mattress to emerge from their hiding place. "Jackie Tyler, you've got guts!" Jake said admiringly.

Smiling, Rose moved up to the front cabin to sit next to Pete. "Bloody traffic," he complained. "We'll just make it to a campsite in time for curfew." He snorted. "Now, if we dared to travel openly, we wouldn't have to worry about curfew. Just go where we please, when we please…just because we've got money. But that would attract too much attention, so we get to see how the other half lives. How Jackie and I might have lived if Vitex hadn't worked out. And I don't like it, Rose." Pete glanced over at her. "Oh, it's not the thought of being poor that bothers me. We've been poor before. It's the guns and the guards and the bloody stupid rules. One set for the haves and one set for the have-nots instead of the same set for everybody!"

"Hear, hear!" Mickey called from the back. "Pete Tyler for President!"

"Shut it," Peter replied good-naturedly. Watching him, Rose saw a thoughtful expression cross his face as they trundled along the motorway.

* * *

"You're sure that's it?" Rose asked, squinting in the morning sunlight. 

Madhukar nodded, holding the key up. "Yes, yes. Listen." He touched her hand just for a moment, and she could hear the music again before he broke the contact. "The door is there."

"Great," Mickey said in a sarcastic tone. "We found it, but how in hell are we gonna get to it?"

It was midmorning on Saturday, two days after the hospital breakout. They'd spent a cramped night at a campsite in Marlborough, none of them really sleeping, from both fear of capture and anticipation of reaching their goal.

As soon as the sun was up and curfew was over, they left the campsite and drove the short route to Avebury. Leaving the motorhome in the public car park, they'd walked to the village, hiding in plain sight among dozens of foreign tourists. Madhukar kept the TARDIS key in hand, using it once more as a kind of divining rod to point out the rift's location.

The others had stared at him in disbelief as he held the key up…and up…and up. The rift wasn't in the stone circle.

It was high above it.

"How can it be all the way up there?" Jake asked.

To everyone's surprise, Jackie answered. "Why couldn't it be? The rift in our world was up in the air so high that Torchwood built a skyscraper to get at it."

"Well we can't build a skyscraper here," Rose pointed out. "Madhukar, you said you could 'walk' without a ship."

"Walk, run, leap between the worlds, yes," he answered. "But I cannot leap that high."

"So now what? Look for another rift?" Jake asked.

Pete answered, shaking his head and smiling. "We don't need to. I've got an idea." He raised a thumb to them. "Trust me on this."

* * *

Additional author's note: Sources for this chapter are Wikipedia, the Megalithic Portal and _This Spectred Isle_ by Simon Marsden. The Rollright Stones were a filming location for the Fourth Doctor episode "The Stones of Blood," which is the very first Doctor Who episode I can remember watching. I'd forgotten the title but recognized the images when I saw them during my research. 


	28. Chapter 28 Confluence

**A/N:** Kit Morgan and Madhukar are mine. Avebury is a National Trust property. Everything else belongs to the BBC.

Thanks to my fantastic beta, aibhinn, for some gentle nudges in the right direction.

This chapter is for my mom, who encouraged me to be a writer. She supported my dreaming, indulged my fantasies, and is the strongest person I know.

* * *

**Chapter 28 – Confluence **

Pete looked very pleased with himself as he parked the motorhome at Clench Common Airfield. "Got the answer to our problem right over there," he said, gesturing with one hand as he helped Rose step down from the vehicle. "Your coach awaits," he grinned.

Her eyes widened as she saw what was tethered to the tarmac next to the airfield hangar.

Jackie was the first to react out loud, incredulously. "I don't believe it! A zeppelin?" she exclaimed as she shifted Violet in her arms.

"Actually, Jacks, zeppelins are rigid," Pete corrected. "_Vitex One_ is a non-rigid airship."

"Don't get technical with me, Pete Tyler! Who's going to fly the bleedin' thing?" Jackie demanded.

"The pilot's on standby, Jacks," Pete answered. "Take them up to the rift, let them go through, and then back home."

"It's not that easy," Madhukar said quietly.

Rose looked at him. "What do you mean?"

"I can walk between the worlds, but you cannot," he answered. "We need to take the airship through the door."

Pete frowned, thinking. "Well, we could have the pilot parachute out before you get to the rift."

"And who'll fly it through the rift and on the other side?" Jackie wanted to know, her voice becoming more shrill with worry. She whirled on Madhukar, who stepped back warily. "Can you do it?"

_Wonderful_, Rose thought. _Mum still has a way with aliens._ _We don't have time for this_. "Mum, please," she sighed.

Mickey spoke up. "I'll fly it. I told you that you could always count on me, Rose. I'll get you there." He grinned. "Besides, how else am I gonna see the Doctor's face when we prove him wrong?"

"Good man," Pete said, clapping a hand on Mickey's shoulder. "Give me a moment to cancel the pilot and make sure the ground crew took care of everything. That phone call from Avebury gave them short notice." He quickly strode into the hangar.

In a low tone, Madhukar said, "Mickey, I cannot promise that you will be able to return. I'm still not certain how I came here in the first place, and from what you've told me the Doctor never found the reason either."

"He didn't. But it's all right," Mickey answered in an equally low tone. "Rose is worth it."

"Mickey—" she started to protest.

He gave her a quelling look. "Rose, there's no time to teach either of you how to fly that thing. Every minute we spend here is another minute for Onyx Division to catch up to us. I have to do this for you. I _want_ to do it for you."

She couldn't argue with his logic. She nodded as he turned to Jake.

"Jake, promise you'll look after Gran for me? Explain it all to her?"

Jake's jaw was tight as he looked down, obviously trying to keep control of his emotions. Then he looked back up at Mickey with a wry smile. "I will. Anything she needs, she's got it. I might even let her slap me once in a while."

Mickey laughed. "Y'know, I remember a time when you didn't want me around. Now look at you. Gonna start blubbering on me."

Rose felt the beginnings of tears as she watched Mickey grin and hug Jake. She turned to her mother. "Mum…"

"Sweetheart, it's your turn now to have everything you should have," Jackie said, tears in her own eyes. "I told you that the other night."

Rose nodded. "But Mum, there's some things _I_ want to tell _you_." She drew in a breath to steady herself. "You're the strongest person I know. All those things you did for me as a kid, trying to be my mother and my father both. Working so hard to keep us in that flat and put food on the table. Trying to give me the best Christmases and birthdays you could, with almost no money." She wiped her eyes. "I didn't appreciate it then. I didn't appreciate _you_ the way I should have. I put you through hell instead," she shook her head at the memories, "leaving school, moving in with Jimmy, and then running off with the Doctor. And through it all you've always been there for me. Sure, you gave me an earful every time I came home. Said you wouldn't bail me out," she said with a bittersweet smile, "but you always did in the end. You never turned your back on me, even when it seemed like I'd turned mine on you."

The tears were now running down Jackie's face as she shifted Violet to one arm and hugged Rose with the other. "Sweetheart, that's what mums do."

"Not all of them," Mickey murmured, his own face wet.

Rose hugged her mother back. "Saying 'thank you' doesn't seem to be enough, but it's all I can think of, Mum. Thank you so much. For everything." She pulled back and looked at her little sister. Jackie gently passed the baby to her.

"You take good care of Mum and Dad for me," Rose told Violet. "Take them on picnics in the country, okay? Read stories with them every night. And listen to them. Don't be like me and put Mum through hell. I want…I want you to work hard in school, even if you hate it like I did. It's worth it. I want you to get your A-levels and go to university and do so much more than I ever did before I met the Doctor. And Violet, when you fall in love…" she stopped and swallowed back a sob. "When you fall in love, let him know. Tell him every single day." She kissed the infant and gave her back to Jackie, saying, "Mum, make sure she knows I'll be thinking of her every day. I'll be thinking of all of you, every single day."

Jackie nodded, unable to speak. Pete came back out of the hangar. "She's all ready to go, but you'll have to hurry. Just caught a broadcast and they're focusing the search this way. Someone at the campsite must have tipped them off. Mickey?" He reached out and shook Mickey's hand. "You take care of her." He glanced over at Madhukar. "Both of you. And tell the Doctor the same when you find him. _I'm_ trusting _you_ on this," he said with a slight smile.

"We will," Mickey promised, and Madhukar nodded in assent.

Pete turned to Rose and held his arms out. "I am so proud of you," he said as she stepped into his embrace. "If you could stay, I think you'd be running Torchwood someday, A-levels or no A-levels. You are smart and brave and so strong. I wish I could claim some of the credit for that, but it all goes to your mother. I'm just happy I got this chance to be your dad, even for a little while."

"Me too," Rose whispered as she held him fiercely. "Thank you, Dad."

Jackie joined them and the family stood there together for a moment, clinging and weeping and loving each other.

Mickey sniffled loudly and said in a shaky voice, "Rose, we have to go. Pete, you'll follow on the ground?"

Pete nodded as he gently pulled away from Rose. "We'll be right with you, watching."

"And we'll be thinking of you every single day," Jackie added in a quavering voice.

Quick last kisses and hugs, then Rose followed Mickey up the gangway. Madhukar fell in step beside her and took her hand in his. She could feel the TARDIS key pressed between their hands, and heard the music once again, soothing and calming her. He held onto her hand until the airship was aloft, and then released it.

"Healing and comfort and peace, my friend," he said gently. "If you'd like, I'll teach you how to listen to the Song without getting lost in it."

She nodded, wiping away tears again. "I would like that. Thank you," she said. She turned to the window and watched the Wiltshire scenery pass slowly underneath them as the ship climbed. It was a patchwork of green and golden fields, covered occasionally by a puffy white cloud. If she squinted, she thought she could make out the glinting white shape of the motorhome pacing them on the road below. Though from this height, it was probably her imagination.

Madhukar had moved to the front of the gondola and gazed out the forward window, the TARDIS key held in front of him, a small smile playing across his lips.

"Lady and gentleman, welcome aboard Mickey's Airlines," Mickey announced from the wheel. "This is your captain speaking. We've reached our cruising speed of fifteen knots, altitude three thousand feet. Straight ahead is Avebury Village, where we'll enlighten tourists on the wonders of Vitex! And speaking of that…" he turned and flipped a switch to activate the airship's marquee. "There! Adverts are rolling…" another switch flipped, "and the autopilot is on." He walked over to Rose, putting an arm around her shoulders. "We'll be there in just a little while."

Rose leaned into him. "I can hardly believe it, after all this," she said in a trembling voice. "You're fantastic, y'know that?"

"Yeah," Mickey said with a grin. She let out a half-sobbing laugh and elbowed him in the ribs. "Oi! No abusing your pilot!" He wrapped his other arm around her and gave her a squeeze. "Next stop, the rift."

"And then home," Madhukar said, moving next to them. She gave him a watery smile, then looked back down at the road. Fresh tears blurred her vision, and she wiped them away.

Home. She was going home. But she was leaving home, too.

* * *

Sometimes fate amazed him with its symmetry. The star that once gave him the power to say goodbye to Rose would now give him the power to find her again. 

The supernova was collapsing. The Stellar Manipulator would speed up the process to create a black hole, its nucleus ready to be primed and balanced and attuned to the Time Vortex.

Ready to become the new Eye of Harmony.

"All readings over here are nominal, Doctor," Jack said from across the console.

The Doctor looked over the monitor on his side. "Everything is set here as well."

"So what are we waiting for?" Kit asked, rocking heel to toe in eagerness, reminding the Doctor of their trip to Disney World. He smiled and flicked a few switches.

"The simulations are all off. This is the real thing now. History in the making." He motioned for her to move next to him, and pointed to a lever on the console. "You helped get this all started. Time to see it through."

She put her hand on the lever, and he covered it with his own. "Together?" he asked her.

"You bet," she replied, beaming.

He looked over at Jack. "Right. Jack, as before, on my mark. Three, two, one…_mark_."

Jack pushed the button on his side of the console as the Doctor and Kit pulled down the lever on theirs. The TARDIS began to quiver from the forces at work around her. The three travelers braced themselves as the quivering turned into more violent shaking.

"Is it supposed to be doing this?" Kit shouted as she tried to find a way to hold on.

The Doctor laughed. "I thought you liked thrill rides, Kit! Just think of this as another roller coaster!"

"Roller coasters usually have seat belts!" she retorted before one last jolt sent all three of them to the floor.

As the TARDIS stilled, Jack pulled himself up to look at the readings. "Doctor! Come see this!"

The Doctor helped Kit up off the deck. Together they joined Jack at his console position. A slow smile spread across the Doctor's face as he looked at the monitor. "That's it!" he exclaimed, and whirled Kit around in a hug. "That's it! Ha! It worked!" He set her down next to Jack and drew the other man into the embrace. He stepped away after a moment, leaving Kit in Jack's arms. He pretended not to notice her blush as she moved away from Jack.

The Doctor moved from panel to panel on the console, checking readings. "The Eye is stabilizing and becoming attuned to the Vortex. That won't take long at all. But that's only half the battle ." He started working some buttons. "If we're lucky, all we need to do is set some coordinates, and—" He threw the lever to start the time rotor.

Nothing happened. The Doctor frowned.

"Not so lucky after all," Jack said.

The Doctor sighed. "I was half expecting this. The Eye makes it easier to pop between realities, as long as they're the _right_ realities. Pete's World is the wrong reality for the TARDIS. We were never supposed to go there in the first place."

"You're not saying that's it, are you?" Kit asked in a disbelieving voice.

He shook his head. "No. It's just going to be a bit harder, and we're going to need Alonzo's help. Jack, would you fetch him from the workroom? Good man," he said as Jack nodded and headed out of the room. When he was sure Jack was out of earshot, he softly said, "He _is_ a good man, Kit."

She looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "Does this have something to do with you practically throwing me at him a minute ago?"

"It has even more to do with someone putting her heart on hold because she's worried about someone else's reaction," he said gently as he moved to stand in front of her. She blushed again and started to look down, but he reached out and raised her chin so she would meet his eyes. "I didn't mean to eavesdrop, Kit. But since it happened, I want you to know I'm not that fragile. If you want to pursue a relationship with Jack, then I'm delighted for both of you. Just promise me that you'll tell him how you feel. Don't make the mistake I made with Rose."

"I understand," she answered with a soft smile. He stepped away from her just as Jack returned with Alonzo.

"Doctor, why didn't you ever tell me you brought more than bananas back from Villengard?" Jack asked. He held up a sonic blaster and battery pack. "Alonzo put together a backup blaster and battery for me."

"Didn't think any of it was worth mentioning before," the Doctor replied. "Everything was in bits and pieces.

"Not anymore!" Jack said. "You really should see what Alonzo's been up to in the workroom! And one of these days you're gonna have to tell me how you got your hands on some of that stuff."

The Doctor chuckled. "One of these days. But for now…" He turned to the android. "Alonzo, the device worked to create the Eye of Harmony. Now I need your help to open a window to a specific space-time target and land us there." He strode over to the console and pulled up coordinates on the monitor. "It will be something like drilling a tunnel right through the void, with the Stellar Manipulator as the drill. I'll target it. Alonzo, you'll stabilize the power flows through the Stellar Manipulator as we go through the tunnel, and you'll need to keep on them while we're there so the TARDIS keeps getting the right energy until we return to our home universe."

"Affirmative," Alonzo replied and moved into place.

Turning to his companions, the Doctor continued, "Jack, you and Kit will steer the TARDIS through the tunnel and land us on the other side. Try not to bounce us around too much, all right?"

"Is this going to be like that last thrill ride?" Kit asked as she and Jack took their position.

The Doctor grinned. "Oh, that last ride was nothing, Kit. You'd call this next one an E-ticket."

* * *

Rose watched as the ditch surrounding Avebury village came into view. Mickey turned off the autopilot and returned to the wheel. "Right, then. Madhukar, you ready to do this?" 

The Seeker nodded. "Once we open the door, the key will call to the TARDIS. The Ekala will deliver the message for us," he told Rose. He turned back to the forward window and held up the key. "Athakara, your servant calls. Athakara, we seek your harmony. Athakara, guide us."

Madhukar continued to chant. Rose's face lit up as the TARDIS key began to glow. She looked out the forward window and could see a similar glow creating a hole in the air below them. "There! It's down there, Mickey!"

"We're too high!" Mickey said. "We'll have to circle around once to lose some altitude."

"How long will that take?" Rose asked.

Mickey pushed a lever. "We're at top speed, but this ship isn't a racer. About five minutes."

Rose's expression turned grim. "I hope we have that much time. That glow in the sky means our cover's gone. If Dad was right about the search, Onyx Division won't be far off."

* * *

Jack was desperately trying to hold onto the console as the TARDIS careened through the interdimensional tunnel. He was standing behind Kit, his body pressing hers up against the console in an effort to keep them both upright while they struggled to steer the shaking timeship. 

"E-ticket was an understatement!" she called to the Doctor, whose face was a picture of concentration as he directed the power of the Manipulator.

"We're almost through!" the Doctor shouted back. "Just hold on another moment!"

* * *

"Athakara, your servant calls. Athakara, we seek your harmony. Athakara, guide us." Madhukar kept chanting all through the long, frustratingly slow circle around Avebury. The glow of the rift became brighter and brighter, and now it was directly in front of them. 

Rose shielded her eyes from the brightness. Mickey pulled a pair of sunglasses out of his pocket and put them on. Madhukar was untroubled by the brilliance, staring straight ahead. Only his chant changed.

"Ekala, find the one we seek. Ekala, call him. Ekala, show us the way."

Mickey gasped. "Rose! There's something coming through the other side!"

* * *

The shaking stopped. The Doctor and his companions released their death grips on the console. 

"We're through," the Doctor breathed.

A sudden sharp jolt sent them to the floor. The sound of sparks and breaking glass rang in the Doctor's ears. "Something hit us!" he exclaimed as he hauled himself back up to the console.

"What the hell?" Jack shouted as he and Kit got to their feet. He looked at his monitor in disbelief. "I'm showing bogeys approaching! We're under fire!"

"Hold on!" the Doctor ordered. "We're going to crash!"

* * *

**A/N:** For those too young to remember, Disneyland used to sell individual lettered tickets for different rides. An E-Ticket was used for the very best ones. 


	29. Chapter 29 Meetings and Partings

**Meetings (and Partings)**

**A/N: **Many many thanks to Aibhinn for outstandin beta work! (Which is to say that this needed a major tweak or two!)

* * *

Mickey pulled himself up off the deck, searching for whatever had just hit them. The whole plan had gone to hell with just one blast. One minute they were straining to make out the object coming through the brightness of the rift; the next, the airship was rocking violently, with a force that sent all three of them to the floor.

He spotted a silvery object hurtling their way. "Did that come from the rift?" he asked, pointing.

Madhukar struggled to his feet and paled. "No! It's my ship! They fixed it, but they must have done something to it. It didn't have weapons before. No weapons, never weapons!"

"Well, it's got weapons now, and we're the target! But they keep missing and hitting the village!" Rose shouted. Smoke was billowing upwards, obscuring their view of the ground below. "Mickey, can you get us back to the rift?"

He spun the wheel, but the airship didn't respond. _Vitex One_ wallowed in the air, her top and bottom fins shredded. "Damn!" he swore. "I can't steer her! We're sitting ducks!"

* * *

"Grab the railing!" Jack shouted to Kit. She sat on the deck and wound her arms and legs around one of the rail posts, and Jack wrapped himself around her protectively. "I've got you," he said into her ear. He felt her clutch at his arms, trembling in more fear than he'd ever seen from her before.

Then he remembered. Her parents. Flight 93. _Oh, God…_

He held on to her more tightly and repeated, "I've got you, Angel. You're safe, I've got you. I won't let go…"

* * *

The Doctor could feel the TARDIS' pain as she slammed down to earth. Echoes of agony as she scraped across its surface, stopping with a second, jolting impact. Then, a sense of relief. She was still alive in this world. Injured, but still alive.

But what of his companions? "Jack? Kit? Are you all right?" he called as he got to his feet. He stepped around the console to see them disentangling themselves from the railing.

"We're okay," Jack said, helping Kit rise, pale and shaking. He pressed a kiss to her forehead once she was up.

Despite their situation, the Doctor grinned inwardly at that. He was even more pleased when she leaned into Jack for support instead of pulling away. Then he checked on the fourth member of their group. "Oh, no."

Alonzo was sprawled on the floor, his beautiful glass head smashed. The Doctor knelt beside the android and saw pieces of clockwork scattered about. "We'll fix you up later," he said, and turned his attention to the Stellar Manipulator. Still functional, but he could smell something burning. He swallowed hard, gorge rising at the knowledge that his severed hand was starting to roast inside the device. "The Manipulator is being pushed to its limit. The bioelectromechanical control is starting to break down. We have to hurry, or we'll lose the energy link back to our universe."

"The external monitors are out, Doctor," Jack reported, looking over his side of the console. "I saw two bogeys before we crashed. One of them was firing on us."

The Doctor rose. "We need to see what's happening out there. Kit," he motioned her over, "with Alonzo gone, you'll have to keep the Manipulator's power flows stable. Watch this gauge, and adjust this dial to keep the gauge just where it is now."

She nodded. "Got it."

He bounded toward the doors. "Let's go, Jack!"

But Jack didn't follow. Instead, he strode over to Kit, gathered her up in his arms and kissed her, fiercely but quickly. When they broke apart, he said, "Just in case I don't get another chance to do that." He pulled his blaster out, and in his usual cocksure tone, said, "See you in hell."

Kit caught his arm and drew him back to kiss him, just as quickly. When they parted this time, her voice was husky, as if she was holding back tears. "Not hell, Jack. Give yourself more credit than that."

"Angel?" Jack sounded confused.

She shook her head. "Tell you later. Go! Be careful."

He nodded and joined the Doctor at the door. "No lecture about my timing?" he asked in a low tone.

"No, Jack. This _was_ the time and place," the Doctor replied with a grin.

Something pounded on the door from outside. The two men nodded at each other, and the Doctor pulled the door open and stepped back to let Jack pass through, blaster aimed straight in front of him.

There was a screech outside. A very familiar-sounding screech. And…crying? The Doctor's eyes widened and he dashed out the door—

To find his arms filled with Jackie Tyler. Jackie, with a wailing bundle in one arm, hugging him with the other. _The baby. The new Tyler arrived,_ he thought absently as he looked around wildly. Pete and Jake were staring down the barrel of Jack's blaster. The Doctor motioned for him to lower the weapon, and everyone started talking at once.

"Doctor! It's really you! I can't believe it!"

"What the hell hit the TARDIS?"

"Onyx Division's caught up to us! The ground units will be here in a minute!"

"We thought we were dead when we saw the TARDIS falling toward our motorhome!"

Everyone talking at once, but no one telling him the one thing he wanted to know, the one thing he needed to know. _"WHERE IS ROSE?"_ he bellowed.

Silence now, except for the baby's crying, as Jackie, Pete and Jake all pointed upwards. He followed their pointing fingers and saw an airship above them, the Vitex name emblazoned on it, its fins in tatters. It was awkwardly maneuvering around a brightly glowing space in the sky.

And it wasn't alone.

"What the hell is _that?_" Jack asked.

The Doctor shook his head. He didn't recognize the craft either, a sleek silver wedge circling the airship like a hawk seeking its prey.

Then it struck. Not with talons, but with bright red bolts of energy. Most of the bolts missed the airship, falling instead to earth. They churned up clouds of dirt and dust, blasted apart a huge standing stone, and reduced one building to splinters.

_Most_ of the bolts missed the airship. One of them didn't.

* * *

"They got one of the rear propellers!" Mickey exclaimed. "But the other is still running. I might be able to use it to turn us back to the rift." He began working controls, and the airship began to turn.

"We're going too slow!" Rose said. "We won't make it before that ship comes around again!"

"Here it comes!" Madhukar warned.

The silver wedge shot by, firing fewer bolts this time. The airship was rocked once more. But as the wedge passed, it seemed to wobble and stall…and then it fell, plunging into the village below.

"Did something hit it?" Rose asked.

Madhukar shook his head. "No, nothing. They brought themselves down. My ship wasn't designed for weapons, never for weapons. They completely drained its power!"

"They didn't do it soon enough," Mickey declared. "They hit our envelope, and we're losing gas. Strap in! We're going down too!"

* * *

"My God! They're on fire!" Jackie was frantic. "They're going to explode!"

The attacker's last volley had torn a long, narrow gash in the fabric of the airship's envelope. The edges of the gash were burning slowly, proof of fire-resistant construction. But they still burned and the airship was sinking to the ground, slowly at first but picking up speed as the hole expanded.

"No, they won't," the Doctor said, glancing over at Pete. "Helium for lifting gas?" Pete nodded.

"What difference does that make?" Jackie demanded.

Jack answered. "Helium's not flammable."

"Can you use the TARDIS to get them off?" Pete asked.

The Doctor shook his head. "She's crippled. We can only go back to the Vortex now, but I'm not going without Rose." He raked his hand through his hair. "It's up to her pilot. Who is it?"

Jackie and Pete looked at each other, then back to the Doctor. "Mickey," Jackie said in a small voice.

"He knows how to fly!" Jake said defensively.

"Jake, this isn't a video game," the Doctor said in a low voice. He exchanged a look with Jack. _Rassilon!_

* * *

Mickey had done everything he could. _Vitex One_ was going down, but at least he'd been able to use the lone working propeller to angle it away from the village, aiming for an open field to the southeast. He glanced out the window, and cursed. He could see military vehicles speeding up the road.

"We're going to have company!" he said as he belted himself in next to Rose. Seconds left now. "Brace yourselves!"

_Vitex One_ hit the ground.

* * *

Jackie screamed and buried her face in Pete's chest as the airship plowed into the field. The burning, deflating envelope rapidly collapsed over the gondola like a shroud.

The Doctor began to run toward the crash site, but before he'd gone more than a few steps, he was cut off by a military Jeep. He looked around to see more vehicles surrounding them, and a helicopter landing not far away. He looked back for Jack.

Jack had already pulled the TARDIS door shut, safely sealing the timeship. He tossed his spare blaster to Jake, and the two men took defensive positions around Jackie and Pete as soldiers jumped out of the vehicles and aimed guns at them.

"THIS IS ONYX DIVISION COMMAND! DROP YOUR WEAPONS!" boomed a voice through a bullhorn.

"Not gonna happen!" Jack shouted back.

"DROP THEM OR WE'LL SHOOT!"

Jake sneered. "You gonna shoot a woman with a baby? Won't that look good on the telly?" He jerked his head upward.

The Doctor followed the motion and grinned. A news helicopter was circling the site, maneuvering for a landing. "The power of the press! A shield for the innocent!" His face turned serious as he walked up to the unit commander. Ignoring the weapons trained on him, he said in a low, deadly voice, "Get out of my way."

The other man's tone was just as low and deadly. "I can't do that, sir. I'm from Torchwood and I have orders to contain the alien threat."

The Doctor stepped closer, his eyes narrowing. "Torchwood again?"

"Worse. Onyx Division. They kill aliens," Jake told him.

"Really? Well, they can try, but I don't die that easily," the Doctor said, still holding the Torchwood commander's eyes with his own. "Commander, I assure you that I'm an alien threat only for as long as you stand in my way."

The other man didn't move. "I have my orders, sir."

"Orders to shoot down an advertising airship? Orders to destroy an historic site?" the Doctor demanded. "Whose orders?"

"Mine," said a cold female voice behind him. "Harriet Jones, President of Great Britain."

The Doctor turned to see a harder, fiercer looking woman than the one he remembered. "Oh, I know who you are," he growled. "Let me tell you who I am. I'm the Doctor, and your men are in my way."

Harriet Jones smiled. It did nothing to warm her expression. "The Doctor? Excellent! Two aliens for the price of one strike."

"And the cost of how many lives?" the Doctor thundered. He waved his arm around. "Look at what you've done here, Harriet Jones! How many people dead in the village?"

"How many, Madam President?" The news team had arrived, camera rolling. A reporter elbowed his way through the troopers, thrusting his microphone forward. "We're live, Madam President! Emergency services radio says there are people trapped in those buildings! A class of children is caught in one of them! Why aren't these troops rescuing them?"

"Good question!" the Doctor replied. "British citizens trapped, a national treasure in ruins and she's doing nothing. Want to know why? I'll tell you in five words! No—make that four!" He stepped closer to the microphone, staring coldly at Harriet. "Because she doesn't _care_."

Even Jackie's baby had fallen silent by now as the Doctor and Harriet locked eyes. She faltered under his gaze. "Get to the village. Start search and rescue!" she barked. "Go!"

"And you let _him_ go, too," Pete said to Harriet, motioning at the Doctor. "He's getting my daughter out of that airship while you explain on national television why your alien hunt is more important than the people you swore to serve and protect."

Harriet began to bluster to the camera, but the Doctor didn't have time to listen. "Jack, with me!" He ran across the field toward the airship wreckage, Jack and Jake both on his heels.

The envelope was still burning, slowly. It covered the boxy shape of the gondola. The Doctor surveyed the ruins, trying to figure out where the door might be. "Here!" He took out the sonic screwdriver, chose a setting and began to slice through the envelope's fabric. "Rose? Rose, can you hear me? Mickey?"

The other men began pulling the fabric away, finally revealing the door. The Doctor reached for the handle and tried to open the door, with no success.

"Locked?" Jack asked

He pushed at it. "Stuck. The impact knocked everything out of alignment."

"We'll get it," Jake said. He nodded at Jack. "On three…one, two, _three!"_

They slammed against the door, forcing it open. Smoke billowed out from inside the compartment. All three men covered their mouths and noses with their hands and began to search.

"Rose? Can you hear me?"

"Where are you, Rose?"

"Mickey?"

Parts of the interior truss had fallen. He spotted a trainer-clad foot poking out from under some of the metal. "Here! I found Mickey!"

The others lifted the truss. "That's not Mickey!" the Doctor exclaimed in surprise.

The red-haired man strapped in the seat blinked at him with wide green eyes. He pointed back toward the fallen trusses. "Mickey…Mickey's there!"

Jake knew the stranger. "Madhukar? You all right?" The stranger—Madhukar?—nodded, and Jake helped him up and out of the gondola.

Jack was still moving trusses. The Doctor worked with him. They came across one large panel. "Looks like the control console fell," Jack said. Together, he and the Doctor lifted it and moved it out of the way.

She was there.

Rose was belted into her seat and bent over double. Mickey was in the seat next to her, and had protectively covered her upper body with his own. Neither moved, and the Doctor felt terror surge through him.

Jack pulled Mickey upright and undid his seatbelt. He checked for a pulse. "He's still alive, Doctor. What about Rose?"

As soon as Jack moved Mickey, the Doctor had gone to Rose, unstrapping her belt and lifting her in his arms. "She's unconscious, Jack. Let's get them out of here."

Jack slung Mickey over his shoulder, and they made their way out of the wreck. Rose felt so light in his arms. Too light, too thin. _What happened to her?_

They moved away from the fallen airship to a patch of open grass. He laid Rose down gently and looked for injuries.

She didn't just _feel _thinner. She _was_ thinner, drawn and gaunt and so very pale. _The crash didn't cause this._ "Rose, what happened to you?" he murmured, caressing her cheek with one hand and holding one of her hands with the other.

"She's dying, Doctor."

The Doctor looked in horror at Mickey, now conscious and sitting up, rubbing the back of his head with one hand. "They thought it was cancer, gave her chemo and everything, but it didn't work. We know what it really was. Something happened when we opened up the TARDIS console to save you that time. When she got left here, she got sick. The TARDIS wasn't protecting her anymore. We were trying to get through the rift to get back to you. I think the TARDIS will get her well again."

Cancer treatments. Chemotherapy, radiation, and probably worse. No wonder she looked like a shadow of herself. Guilt twisted his insides. "Wake up, Rose," he murmured. "I'm here. I've come for you. Please, come back to me." He leaned in to kiss her lips, his mouth moving gently over hers, his hand sliding from her cheek to stroke her hair.

She moved slightly in his arms and made a soft sound. The hand he was holding tightened around his. Hearts in his throat, he pulled back to watch her eyes flutter open and focus on him. In a voice just above a whisper, he said the words he'd meant to say for so long. "Rose Tyler, I love you."

Her eyes grew huge, and she gasped. "Doctor? Oh, God, this can't be real. I must be dead!"

He gave her the brilliant smile he knew she loved. "Does this feel like you're dead?" He pulled her up against himself with one arm and kissed her thoroughly as she clung to him. He brought one of her hands to his temple and opened his mind to her, letting her see the longing and love he'd kept inside since losing her. With a whimper, she moved his hand to her own temple, an invitation to look into her own mind. He didn't hesitate.

Flashes of her life without him, building a relationship with Pete, caring for her baby sister, making a name for herself at Torchwood. Oh, he was so proud of her! She'd grown so much. Then the illness, and the agonies of the treatments. All because she'd saved him. He felt wetness on his cheeks and knew he was weeping for her. _Oh, Rose, my sweet Rose. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry._

One of her hands slid into his hair, the other making gentle circles on his back as if she could caress away his guilt. He could hear her voice in his mind as he kept kissing her. _It's all right, Doctor. I wouldn't change a thing. You're worth it all. I love you, love you..._

_Love you… _"I love you." His voice was rough with emotion as they broke apart. She was crying too, and they brushed away each other's tears.

"I can't believe you're really here," she said. "I thought you said you couldn't do it."

He laughed. "I was wrong!" he said as he helped her to a shaky stand.

"Jake, mark that down!" Mickey said, sounding husky himself. "It's not every day you hear the Doctor admit he was wrong, and we've got witnesses!"

"Too bad the TV news camera wasn't here to get that," Jack teased from behind Rose.

She hadn't seen him yet, and she whirled at hearing his voice. "Jack? _Jack?_" She was crying again as she fell into Jack's arms.

"Hello, Rose," he smiled, kissing her forehead. She reached up to pull his head down and kiss his mouth.

She was smiling when she let him go. "The Doctor said we'd see you again, when you finished what you had to do. I'm so glad you're here."

"Me too. Especially when it means getting a kiss like that!" he told her with a wink.

"Oi! Kiss your own girlfriend when we get back to the TARDIS!" the Doctor scolded. "Come on, Rose. Let's go home." He put an arm around her waist and started back toward the TARDIS. Jack fell in step and put his own arm around her shoulders.

Rose was glancing back and forth between Jack and the Doctor. "Girlfriend?"

The Doctor grinned down at her. "Oh, we have lots of stories to tell you. You're going to like Kit. But first, tell me something. Who's the ginger fellow who was in the airship with you?" he asked, with a jerk of his head back toward Madhukar, who was following with Jake and Mickey.

Rose grinned. "I have this habit of picking up aliens."

The Doctor did a double take. "Harriet Jones said two aliens for the price of one strike. I thought she meant Jack. _He's _the other alien?"

"His name is Madhukar. He calls himself a Seeker," Rose told him. "Doctor, I think you're what he's looking for."

He looked at her curiously. "How's that?"

"He can walk, literally walk, between dimensions," Rose said. "In both time and space."

The Doctor stopped dead. "That's not possible."

"So was this. Us being together again," she said, giving him a squeeze with the arm she'd wound around his waist. She pointed at the glow in the sky. "See for yourself. He opened that rift with nothing more than my TARDIS key. And that brought you here."

He gaped at the rift above them. "We were already tunneling through from the other side. But the TARDIS key would have drawn us to this spot." He looked over at Madhukar. "You're seeking _me_? Why?"

"I walk between the ages," the Seeker replied. "Rose says you can teach me the wisdom to use the power."

The Doctor stared into the other man's eyes, and the words of the Face of Boe came back to him. _Find the other dancers. You were never alone._

Was this what he meant? Was this man the first step to rebuilding the Time Lords?

At any rate, he needed to be taught how to travel through time without mucking things up. And he seemed to be willing. "I can teach you."

The Seeker beamed. "Yes, yes! You teach me what you know, and I will teach Rose what I know."

The Doctor raised an eyebrow at Rose, who just smiled. "I've got stories of my own for you. I'll tell you on the TARDIS." She furrowed her brow as she looked ahead. "What in the world?"

A crowd of news media had gathered around the TARDIS' crash site. As they got closer, the Doctor could see Harriet Jones had shrunk back, overwhelmed by Pete Tyler.

"The destruction here at Avebury is just a symptom of how tainted our system has become, because our leaders just don't care!" Pete was saying. "Harriet Jones claims she's trying to protect us from alien threats, but it wasn't aliens that attacked this village. It wasn't aliens that shot down my airship. And it wasn't aliens that nearly killed my daughter! That was all done by Harriet Jones' personal task force of British soldiers. They're supposed to be anti-alien, but I think they're anti-_us_!"

"Hear, hear!" Jake cheered as they reached the crowd.

Mickey joined in. "Pete Tyler for President!"

That set off a new round of questions aimed at the President from the gathered media. None of them paid attention to Jackie hurtling toward Rose and the Doctor. She ran into their open arms, crying, "Thank God you're all right!"

Pete waded through the reporters to join them. "Doctor, those four words of yours are bringing down Harriet Jones' government." He motioned back towards where Harriet was desperately trying to defend herself from the questions. She didn't look hard or fierce any more.

Rose smirked. "Four words this time?"

"I'm just that good," the Doctor grinned.

"This time?" Jack asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Another story for later," the Doctor said. "We don't have much time now. The TARDIS needs to get back into the Vortex to heal. Rose, you have to say your goodbyes."

She looked around at her family and friends. "We've already said everything. I don't think I can do it again."

Jackie kissed Rose, and then caught the Doctor as he tried to back away. With a sigh, he submitted to being kissed as well, and decided it wasn't so bad after all. "Take care of each other," Jackie told them in a quavering voice.

He regarded her teary eyes for a moment, then dug into his pocket. "Jackie, take this," he said, pulling out the memory sphere. It began playing its series of images. "It will help you remember, and help—" he quickly reviewed the memories Rose had just shared with him, "—it'll help Violet know her sister."

Jackie looked at him gratefully. "Are you sure you want to give me this?"

The Doctor smiled and pulled Rose closer. "Yeah. I've got the real thing."

"Thank you, Doctor," Jackie said. One of the images caught her attention. "Oh! I'd forgotten how big your ears used to be!"

The Doctor glanced down at the sphere, to see a memory of his previous self dancing with Rose on the TARDIS. "I didn't put that in there!"

Jack took a look. "That was me, Doctor. I recorded it when we were fueling up the TARDIS."

The Doctor furrowed his brow. "You did?"

A loud crackling sound drew his attention to the TARDIS. A streak of energy arced from the top of the timeship up to the rift, then disappeared. "We're running out of time. Kit can't keep the Manipulator's power stable too much longer. Jackie," he gave her a fast hug, then reached to shake Pete's hand. "Pete! You sounded…_presidential_ over there."

"You did say one ordinary man can change the world, Doctor," Pete replied. "This world needs some changes. I think I can do it. With a little help from Jackie and these lads," he indicated Jake and Mickey.

"Jake! Mickey!" The Doctor shook both their hands, and then winked at Mickey. "Not such an idiot after all!" He grinned broadly. "I'm wrong twice in one day! Mark that down, Jake! It hasn't happened in a few centuries!"

He started toward the TARDIS. "Come on, you lot. All aboard that's going aboard!" He pulled his key out and unlocked the TARDIS door. As he pushed it open, Rose looked back one more time.

"I love you. Goodbye," she said in a shaky whisper. Gently, the Doctor drew her inside, Jack and Madhukar following.

"Welcome home, Rose," he said softly.

She let out a little shuddering sigh as they started up the ramp to the console. "Oh, I've missed her so much."

"She's missed you, Rose." Kit spoke from around the other side of the console, hidden from view by the time rotor. "Doctor, we have to get back. I can't hold the Manipulator much longer."

The Doctor frowned. Something didn't sound right about her voice.

Jack bounded up the ramp and passed them, smiling widely. "You did it, Angel! I knew you could!" He circled the console, and then stopped short. "Angel? What did you do?"

At Jack's suddenly panicked tone, the Doctor quickly moved to where he could really see Kit, and gasped at the sight.

The Stellar Manipulator lay open in front of her. The charred, smoking ruin of his hand was on the TARDIS floor. In its place, she'd thrust her own hand to close the circuit.

Taking the power of the Eye of Harmony through her body.

"The hand burned out," Kit said calmly. "I had to hold the link." Her eyes met the Doctor's. They were too bright, too blue. "The TARDIS can't take this world any longer, Doctor. We need to get into the Vortex."

He felt a nudge from the TARDIS herself. Wordlessly he nodded and worked the controls to start the rotor. With a sigh of relief, Kit pulled her hand from the Manipulator and shook it a little. Jack grabbed her hand and stared at it, then looked at her face. "How— how did you do that?"

"Jack, allow me?" The Doctor took her hand as Jack stepped back, glancing between the two in confusion.

The Doctor raised Kit's hand to look closely at it. "No visible damage." He leaned closer, sniffed her skin. "But there's energy residue."

Kit didn't say a word, just watching him with eyes that were still too blue. He sniffed again, and ran his fingers along hers to feel the texture from palm to fingertips. He grasped her wrist and turned her hand to examine it again, front and back. Kit remained impassive, until he suddenly licked her hand. Rose and Jack both made small exclamations of surprise, but Kit only chuckled.

"I'm not an ice cream cone, you know," she said with a small smile. "That tickled."

The Doctor was not going to let her distract him. "Your hand closed the circuit when the Manipulator was about to fail," he said. "By the scent and flavor of your skin, a huge amount of power passed through you."

He released her hand and stepped back, looking her up and down. She gazed back with an eyebrow raised expectantly.

"No human could do that and live," he said. "But you're not human, are you, Kit?"


	30. Chapter 30 The Music of Time

A/N: A good beta points out your minor plot problems, continuity issues and proofreading mistakes. A great beta will help you break through the walls of uncertainty when you've gone and scared yourself to death with an idea. I am blessed to have found a great beta! Aibhinn, thanks for coming along on this ride with me!

You know I don't own any of this.

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* * *

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**Chapter Thirty - The Music of Time**

Apparently his newest companion was hyper-sensitive to the rich smell of burnt flesh. Madhukar was dry-heaving over by the door.

Jack was looking a little ill himself, and the Doctor was certain the complaint wasn't physical. The onetime con man wouldn't take well to the thought of being conned himself.

"Doctor, are you sure it wasn't just some quirk of the Stellar Manipulator?" Jack asked in a low tone.

The Doctor knew Jack was desperately hoping he hadn't been deceived. Because if Kit had fooled him about what she was, then what else had she lied to him about? He hated to crush that hope. He looked at the other man sympathetically. "The memory sphere made me suspect her. She told me it wouldn't work for her, but _you _were able to use it. And then,,,well, you saw it yourself, Jack. She channeled energy that barbecued my hand—" Rose let out a shocked cry as she realized just what the Doctor meant, "—without a trace of injury to herself."

Jack shook his head and met Kit's too-vivid gaze. "You're good," he told her in a harsh voice that made her flinch a little. "You acted human. You sounded human. You even _kissed_ like a human, and I've kissed enough aliens to think I'd know the difference."

"Jack— "

He cut her off with a sharp and bitter chuckle. "So I fell for an alien. It's not the first time."

"It's also not the first time that I've been fooled by a companion," the Doctor interrupted, leaning against the console. "I should have realized. It's all been too perfect, Kit, from the moment we met on that gantry in Florida. The first thing I ever heard you say was something I was thinking."

She shrugged slightly as she settled into the nearest seat. "Couldn't help it. You _were_ thinking rather loudly at the time."

"And everything that happened afterwards?" the Doctor asked, leaning back against the console. "Going to New D.C. and finding that message from Romana? Chasing after all those bits of Gallifrey, finding Jack, finding the Matrix…none of it was a coincidence, was it?"

She leaned back herself, crossing her arms. "There's no such thing as coincidence, Doctor."

He pushed away from the console and stood over her. "It was all _supposed_ to happen? Your killing a man?"

She looked up at him, undaunted by the sudden chill in his voice. "To save your life. Yes."

"The destruction of the shuttles?"

"Yes."

"Starting World War Three?"

"Yes."

"And Mariah? She was supposed to die, too?"

Mention of the murdered Torchwood worker seemed to strike a nerve. Kit looked down for a moment. When she raised her head again, her eyes had lost their glow. "You of all people should know that sometimes people die because of what must be. Sometimes _we_ die because of what must be."

The Doctor furrowed his brow. "What _must_ be? What does that mean?"

"Doctor, in your mind's eye, you can see all that is, all that was, all that ever could be," Kit replied. "_We _see what _must_ be. We inspire, we guide, and once in a while we… _push _for the sake of what must be. You needed a little of all of that, my friend." Her eyes softened in sympathy. "After losing Rose, you were too busy tracking every move Torchwood ever made, trying to keep them out of more trouble."

"Not quite the fantastic life I'd been hoping you'd lead," Rose said, sidling next to the Doctor.

"And not the right path," Kit said. "We needed to get you back on track. Ever since the Time War, tiny holes have been punched through the fabric of the universe. You fell through one to Pete's World. The Daleks got through another in their Void ship. The wrong realities were mixing because the walls between them were breaking down. We could shore them up a little bit on our own, but we needed a stronger power source to do more than a patch job."

He could feel encouragement from the TARDIS as the pieces fell into place. "You needed the Eye of Harmony!"

She nodded. "The Eye of Harmony wasn't just a source of power for the Time Lords, Doctor. It was for us as well. But we don't have the ability to create one."

The Doctor paced back and forth, rubbing the back of his neck as he considered everything he'd heard. He stopped and turned back to her. "And that brings us to the real question. Just who and what are you?"

"She is one of the Ekala." Madhukar had finally acclimated and joined them at the console, regarding Kit with awe. He glanced at the Doctor. "My apologies for losing control over that." He motioned at the burnt hand. "It overwhelmed me first, and then…your ship! Wondrous, amazing…fantastic! It resonates with the Song! And it flows from her!" He pointed at Kit. "Rose, she is that answer that was at the tip of your tongue."

Rose gasped in surprise. "You mean she…?" When Madhukar nodded, she looked at Kit with wide eyes. "It was you?"

Kit beamed at her. "Me among others. We helped you hold the power of the Vortex." She inclined her head toward Madhukar. "Peace, wisdom and harmony to you, Seeker." He bowed in response.

"Wait a minute," Jack said. "Rose, what are you talking about?"

"After the Game Station," she said, regret and hope for forgiveness in her voice. "After—after we left you."

Jack reached out to squeeze her hand. "I know all about it, Rose. The Doctor told me I'm here thanks to you," he said.

"I think you have to thank her, too," Rose said. "Doctor, I told you I heard singing, remember?"

"And I said I sang a song to make the Daleks run away," he nodded, remembering.

"But it wasn't you!" Rose protested. "It was _her_. Madhukar told me I heard the Ekala singing the Song of Atha..Atha.."

"Athakara," Madhukar supplied.

"That's it!" Rose exclaimed. "And she was one of the singers!"

The Doctor's talent for saying the first thing that popped into his head chose that moment to re-assert itself. "Kit can't sing."

That set Kit off into peals of laughter. "Sez you! Guess I'll have to show you. Doctor, you still need to seal the breaches to Pete's World. I'll help." She slid off the seat. "I should warn you. I need to change all the way to do this."

She _rippled. _The Kit he knew in blue jeans and a Red Sox jersey was gone. In her place stood a being gowned in a familiar dazzling light. Light he'd seen a lifetime ago, streaming around Rose and shining in her eyes. But Rose's human form had stood out in dark relief against that glow. In contrast, Kit seemed to be made of that radiance, with golden tendrils streaming behind her, arching upward and outward, like..like..

Like _wings_.

* * *

"This is why you like it when I call you 'Angel,'" Jack breathed in wonder.

Her face…even shining with golden light, her face was still the same. Blue eyes and creamy skin framed by dark curls. Her smile was the same too, as warm as the hand she reached out to him, taking his own and drawing it up against her cheek.

"What I like is the way you say it, Jack, and the feeling behind the word," she said, giving his hand a gentle squeeze. "Humans call us angels. Spirits. Cherubim, seraphim, Malaaikah, Tennin, Tenshin, Devas, Amesha Spentas…choose your faith. All the stories put us a step below gods! But don't put too much stock in legends, and don't make more of me than I really am. I'm different, but not divine."

"I don't know about that," he smiled as he stroked her cheek.

"Flatterer! You know better. I still have the mouth of a spacedock worker!" she said with a wink. Jack grinned along with her. "And you'll notice," she pointed above her head, "no halo!" She gave his hand one more squeeze. "Now, I have work to do!"

She turned to the Doctor, becoming serious again. "I need you to channel the necessary energy with the TARDIS first. I'll draw on that to sing the rifts shut for good."

The Doctor raised an eyebrow, even as he began to work the controls. "I've heard you sing, Kit."

"That's what you think," she chuckled, turning her eyes to the time rotor, which was beginning to glow more brightly than Jack had ever seen. "Close your eyes and just listen."

Jack closed his eyes. He drew in a surprised breath as she began to sing, a sweet sound that at first barely rose above the hum of the TARDIS. Then it grew in volume and power. She sang words he couldn't understand, in an aria that invoked colors he couldn't name. Images of heartbreaking beauty passed through his mind's eye as she trilled a few final notes, and then fell silent. He savored the final images for a moment. Then she softly said, "You can open your eyes."

The angel was gone. His Kit was back, sitting in the seat again, rubbing her hands over her face. He moved beside her, and she leaned against him with a tired sigh. "That took more out of me than I expected," she said. "Doctor, if you check the readings, I think you'll find everything is locked up tight again."

The Doctor was already studying at the monitor. He looked up, excitement written over his face. "The breaches are sealed, more securely than I could ever have done on my own. This is fantastic!" He bounded away from the monitor over to Kit, bending down to look her in the eyes. "So that's what the Face of Boe meant by the Music of Time! You manipulated power and molded reality with your voice! I haven't seen anything like this since Logopolis!" He straightened up again to look at the others. "Jack, Madhukar, did either of you ever visit Logopolis?" He barely paused as they shook their heads, prattling on as he began circling the console. "The Logopolitans had an amazing skill for modeling mathematics into reality with nothing more than their minds. They were staving off entropy with pure equations and the power of thought. I had them work on the TARDIS once, trying to fix the chameleon circuit with block transfer computation, but the Master mucked it all up and—" Suddenly the Doctor stopped and turned to look at Kit. The manic glee was gone. "And he killed them all. It just occurred to me how closely music and mathematics are related. The Logopolitans…were they your people? Ekala?"

"Only the Monitor," she replied softly.

"I'm sorry. I couldn't save him," the Doctor said, regret in his voice. Rose took his hand.

"You weren't meant to," Kit said, bowing her head. Her own voice was tinged with sadness. "Like I said, sometimes we die for what must be."

Jack moved in front of her and tilted her face up. Tears were glimmering in her eyes. "Your parents," he said. It wasn't a question. "They really were on Flight 93. That wasn't just a part of your cover story."

"I wish it was, Jack. But that day would have been so much worse if they hadn't been there to inspire the courage to do what had to be done." She wiped the tears away and gave him a watery smile. "I told you we're not quite what we're cracked up to be. A divine being wouldn't have trouble accepting loss." He smiled gently in return, pulling her into his arms. She surprised him by resting her cheek against his chest with a small sob.

"Angel, come on," he said soothingly. "The good guys won this time! We got Rose back, we proved the Doctor wrong—" He threw a mischievous glance over at the Time Lord.

"Watch yourself, Captain!" the Doctor growled good-naturedly while Rose smirked. But concern was evident in his expression.

"This is one of those 'everybody lives' days!" Jack went on, ignoring the Doctor's serious mien. He pulled her up on her feet. "Normally that means music and dancing here on the TARDIS. Remember, Rose?" Releasing Kit for a moment, he stepped over to Rose and pulled her away from the Doctor to twirl her around. "Think we can teach Madhukar how to jitterbug?" he asked as she laughed. "Doctor? Wanna fire up the Glenn Miller?"

"Jack…" Kit's voice was quiet.

He spun Rose back into the Doctor's arms, and turned back toward Kit to pull her into his embrace again. "We did the impossible! It's time to celebrate!"

"Jack." She put a finger over his lips to quiet him, a sorrowful look in her eyes. "Oh, Jack. I…I have to break your heart again." She reached up to frame his face with her hands. "I can't stay."

He froze. "What are you talking about? Where are you going?"

She was tenderly caressing his face. "I'm being called home, Jack."

"You _are_ home! Here with me!" he protested. That drew a small smile from her, and he stammered, "I mean…I was hoping…"

"I know." She drew his head down so she could rest her forehead against his. "I tried to protect you. I ended up not being able to protect either of us." She pulled back, and her blue eyes met his. "So I fell for an alien, too. For me, that _is_ a first!" He smiled with her. "You could tempt an angel, Jack. But…the Eye of Harmony is still maturing. All of us, even the least of us, are needed to sing it stable."

"I thought I'd already stabilized it," the Doctor said.

She gently moved out of Jack's embrace. "For your purposes, yes. But there's still more refining that only we can do outside of linear time, in the Vortex." She grinned suddenly. "Doctor, you didn't think Rassilon called it the Eye of Harmony because the name _sounded_ good, did you?"

The Doctor grinned back down at her, then lifted her off her feet in a tight hug. "You could never be the least of anything. I don't think I can ever repay you for helping me get Rose back."

"Just another part of what must be," she said as he set her back down. "A few days in the Vortex will heal both Rose and the TARDIS. After that… you just be a good teacher to him." She motioned at Madhukar. "First of the new Time Lords. You can't watch over time and space all on your own, you know. There's too much to do. Planets to save, lunatics to stop, Vellians to control.." He laughed heartily at that. She stood on tiptoe to kiss his cheek. "Just remember to stop and smell the..um..flowers."

"And not just read the Cliff's Notes?" he asked with a smile that told Jack they were sharing a private joke.

It was her turn to laugh. "We'll work on metaphors another time!" She looked at Rose. "He's still no knight in shining armor, Rose. In fact, his talent for finding trouble is mind-boggling!"

"Jeopardy-friendly?" Rose asked, giving the Doctor a nudge with her elbow.

"Oh, definitely! Take care of him. And…watch out for Jack for me?"

Rose smiled. "I will."

Kit stepped over to Madhukar, holding her left hand up to him. She cocked her head when he seemed to hesitate, and smiled when he raised his own left hand and pressed it against hers. "I don't want you making more of me than I am, either," she told him. "Even your people don't have it all right."

Madhukar nodded. "I will remember, and I will tell them."

"Oh, you'll tell them so many things! Joy in your Finding, Seeker." She drew away from Madhukar and turned back to Jack.

He took both her hands and stepped back at arm's length to just look at her, taking in every detail. He cocked his head curiously. "Shouldn't you be wearing an Angels jersey?"

She giggled. "Wouldn't that be a cliché? Nah. Red Sox all the way. Games at Fenway are a lot more fun. I'll take you to one sometime and prove it."

Hope sprang up in his heart. He pulled her close. "Does that mean you're coming back?"

Her eyes focused somewhere far away. "We don't get to see _all_ of what must be. Especially when it's about ourselves," she replied slowly. "But I _can_ see enough to promise you that I will find you again. I can see us together."

"When?"

She focused back on him with a slightly stern expression. "Jack. Even if I _could_ see it that clearly, you know I couldn't tell you." She smiled then. "But I don't blame you for asking."

"You know I had to try," he answered, resting one hand on her hip and bringing the other on the side of her face. "_How_ do you see us?"

Her eyes sparkled as she slid her arms up along his chest and around his neck. "Like this," she whispered, and drew his head down for a kiss.

There was no rushing this time as their mouths met and melded. He slipped his hand from her hip to the small of her back to hold her even closer, memorizing the feel of her body against his, the silken texture of her hair, the warmth and sweetness of her lips. It was what he'd dreamed of, and he let himself get lost in kissing her.

* * *

Tears were running down Rose's face as she watched Jack with Kit. All she'd been through hadn't destroyed her empathy, the Doctor reflected as he wrapped his arms around her. She was still his Rose. She rested her head against his chest, and he laid his cheek against her hair, looking away from his companions to give them some privacy.

A sudden flare made them look back at the other couple. Kit had changed again in the midst of the kiss, becoming a being of light once more. Whorls of coruscating gold shimmered around them, wrapping them both in a shining embrace. When they finally parted, Jack opened his eyes and huffed in surprise. "I think you just ruined me for kissing anyone else ever again."

One side of her mouth quirked up. "Really? Would you be offended if I said I was happy that Captain Jack won't be getting around much any more?"

He threw his head back in laughter. "Not at all!" They held each other quietly for a moment, foreheads pressed together, and then he began chuckling again. "You know, I just realized that you've never told me your real name. Kissing strangers has never been a problem for me, but you and I aren't strangers. What do I call you?"

"I still like it when you call me 'Angel,'" she said with a soft smile. "Kit is my heart name, Jack. If you want to be formal, I'm Ka'alakit'kathalia. But you and I don't have to be formal."

"No," he agreed, bending to kiss her again. She raised up to meet him partway. At first the Doctor thought she was standing on tiptoe. Then he realized she was hovering _above_ the deck.

Gently, she pulled away from Jack, floating back toward the console. Golden tendrils caressed him before drawing away and wrapping around the time rotor. Rose stepped away from the Doctor, still holding his hand and reaching her other one out to Jack. He took it, watching in awe as Kit rose upward, becoming even brighter as she moved toward the rotor. She stopped, and winked at Jack.

"See ya in heaven."

Kit and the rotor both glowed with unbearable light, forcing them to close their eyes against the brilliance. When they could look again, the walls of the console room were glowing with an aurora of colors.

But Kit was gone.

The Doctor looked over at Jack, just as Rose moved to give him a comforting hug. Tears were trailing down his cheeks, and the Doctor's own hearts ached in sympathy for him.

After a long moment, Jack drew away from Rose. He scrubbed his hands over his face and gave them a smile that was falsely bright. "I'm all right." When the Doctor gave him a disbelieving look, he amended, "I will be. She'll be back. She promised."

"And promises are meant to be kept," Rose said.

"Exactly!" Jack agreed, his smile becoming more genuine. "Listen, Doctor. I'll get Madhukar settled into a room. You probably ought to check Rose over in the medical bay to make sure she's okay. Play doctor a bit," he said with a wink that made Rose blush.

"Captain!" the Doctor said in a warning tone. Jack reached out and laid a hand on his shoulder.

"Go on. You've just got each other back. We need to spend a few days in the Vortex anyway. The universe won't implode if you spend that time getting to know each other again."

The Doctor glanced over at Madhukar, who grinned and said, "I've been Seeking years for you, Acarya. Honored Teacher. I can wait little longer."

He grinned. "Honored teacher, eh? Finally a bit of respect for the dignity of a Time Lord!"

"Don't get too used to it," Rose teased him. "We'll have him corrupted and disrespectful in no time."

"Oi!"

"Let the corruption begin!" Jack smirked. "Come on, Madhukar. I'll give you the fifty-cent tour and get you settled into your room." He met the Doctor's eyes. "After that, I think I'll take some batting practice. Do some thinking."

The Doctor smiled, understanding. "It's amazing what you can do with a little batting practice. Even the impossible."

"If you need to talk…" Rose said, reaching out to touch his arm.

Jack nodded. "I'll find you." She gave him a chaste kiss. He stood and thought for a moment, then shook his head. "Definitely ruined!"

He beckoned to Madhukar and led him off, leaving the Doctor and Rose in the console room.

After so long, finally, alone.

The Doctor was surprised to find that he was suddenly feeling shy and awkward. It didn't make any sense. At last he was right where he wanted to be, with the woman he loved, but he felt more like a confused teenager than a nine hundred year old Time Lord. He cleared his throat. "So…." He stopped, not sure what to say next, then took a breath and tried again. "Well, then…"

Rose seemed to be feeling awkward as well. "I suppose…"

Their eyes met and they started laughing. "This is silly," Rose giggled.

"Well, laughter is the best medicine, right? And speaking of medicine, I suppose I should check you over to see how you're doing." He put an arm around her and walked her back to the medical bay.

A quick scan showed that her white blood cell count was already dropping. A few days in the Vortex would restore her vitality, and a few visits back to the kitchen would bring her back to a healthy weight.

Removing the chemotherapy catheter in her chest was the work of a moment. She took the device from him and chuckled softly as he ran the dermal regenerator over the damaged skin. "I said I needed a miracle," she said.

His work done, he laid the regenerator down and ran a gentle hand over the newly healed skin above her breast. "We both did," he murmured, bending down so his face was close enough to feel her breath.

They stayed that way for a moment, just breathing each other in. Then Rose whispered, "So, you planning to play doctor right here?"

He smiled and swept her up, bridal style. "Let's take this to our room."

"Ours?" she inquired with an arched eyebrow as he carried her out of the medical bay. He mirrored her expression.

"What? I can't share a bedroom with my…with my…" he stopped, searching for the right word.

"Girlfriend?" Rose suggested helpfully.

He shook his head. "Far too juvenile for a nine hundred year old Time Lord," he said. He considered the possibilities. "Hmmm. Flame? No, too temporary. Angel? No, Jack's staked that one out. Hmmm…inamorata? Paramour? No, those sound too indecent. What else? Sweetheart? Dearest? Old lady?"

"Don't even _think_ about that one!" she giggled, giving him a swat.

He grinned at her as they reached his…_their_ room, and he pushed the door open. He silently thanked the TARDIS for tidying up a bit, and for what she left on his dresser. "Well then. How about these, Rose? Partner? Lover?"

She smiled as he set her down. "I should hope so."

He walked over to the dresser and picked up the ornately carved bottle left there by the TARDIS. He turned back to Rose. "Do you remember this?"

She smiled. "The chocolate wine from Traken. Tremas gave it to us. Said it was for our wedding."

"Hmmm. Spouse. Wife. Soulmate. _Rose_." His eyes never left hers as he opened the bottle and began to pour the wine into the glasses also left by the TARDIS. "We may not have the benefit of clergy," he said, passing one of the glasses to her, "but we do have an angel's blessing. Think that would be good enough for your mother?"

"It's good enough for me," Rose said, clinking her glass against his and then taking a sip. "You do remember what this stuff does to me, don't you?"

He smiled over the rim of his own glass. "Oh, yes. I've been looking forward to it." He set the glass down, took her in his arms again and bent to kiss her.

Their waiting was over. They were together again.

Just where they belonged.

* * *

Scintillating colors continued to flow across the walls of the TARDIS console room as the ancient timeship considered her charges. She sent waves of welcome to the one who was murmuring soft prayers in his room, still lost in wonder. She sent comfort to the one who'd settled onto the grass of the cricket pitch-turned-baseball diamond, a red aluminum baseball bat lying across his lap and an angel's name on his lips. And she shared in the love and joy of the two who had lost and found each other.

The TARDIS hummed as she tumbled through the Vortex, healing in the Music of Time.

And outside the Vortex, beyond the Music, something moved in the dark.

* * *

Additional Author's Note: I know, I know. Hey, I fixed "Doomsday," didn't I? I'm not about to go and leave poor Jack brokenhearted. I'm afraid I've gone and fallen for him too.

For anyone confused about the mentions of Traken and chocolate wine, let me humbly refer you to my earlier tale, "Hold On To Life," also archived here.


End file.
